A woman who teaches CPR to nurses happened to be on the beach in the Burlingame State Campground in Charlestown Sunday afternoon when a man was pulled out of the water, blue and lacking a pulse, by a lifeguard and another swimmer.

Sherry Sherman, of Charlestown, a physical therapy assistant for Home Health Services of South County, said she and her daughter, 9, were staying at the campground and had just arrived at Watchaug Pond for a swim when she noticed a commotion.

A lifeguard, identified by Department of Environmental Management Associate Director Larry Mouradjian as Albert A. Dinwoodie, with the help of park patron Stephen Zasowski, were pulling an unconscious man out of the water.

Sherman told the lifeguard that she was a CPR instructor and could help. “He looked grateful,” she said. “I’m sure he would have done a good job.”

Dinwoodie, 20, kept the crowd back so Sherman could listen for breathing and try to detect a pulse, Sherman said. Not finding either, she did two rescue breaths and then started CPR. The man began taking shallow breaths, but stopped breathing again when they rolled him onto his side. Sherman gave him another puff and he began breathing.

Leo R. Daigneault, of Jacksonville, N.Y., was taken to Westerly Hospital, where he was listed in critical condition, and later airlifted to Rhode Island Hospital, Mouradjian said yesterday.

Daigneault was listed in serious condition last night.

“I’ve been teaching [CPR] for 20 years and I’ve never used it,” Sherman said last night. “It was all instinct.”

“He’s a very fortunate person,” Mouradjian said, “given that it was a staffed facility and there was in fact a rescue….”

dnaylor@projo.com