Bystanders pulled a 37-year-old man from the waves off Crystal Cove State Park on Sunday, then performed CPR on him until paramedics resuscitated him, a county fire spokesman said.

Joselito Ortega of Lakewood apparently suffered a heart attack while swimming, said Capt. Kirk Summers, spokesman for the Orange County Fire Authority.

Ortega was listed in critical condition at Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian, officials said Sunday night.

Ray Simoncelli of Laguna Hills said he walked up to the beach just as the bystanders pulled Ortega from the water.

"Two or three beach-goers were applying blows to his back and kind of rolled him on his right side," said Simoncelli, who was with his family and with friends visiting from Tampa, Fla.

"He spit some sea water out, and that looked like a promising thing," he said.

Summers said witnesses saw Ortega go down around 3:20 p.m. at Reef Point Beach, then quickly grabbed him and pulled him out of the water.

Bystanders, including a doctor, began cardiopulmonary resuscitation after seeing that he had no pulse and wasn't breathing, he said.

On Saturday, four women saved an 11-year-old girl found on the bottom of an apartment pool in Irvine.

"This is the second time this weekend that bystanders have initiated CPR on a near-drowning victim," Summers said. "It means that people should take CPR class. ... It could make all the difference in the world."

Simoncelli said he saw paramedics use a defibrillator on Ortega and then place him in the ambulance and drive away.

"God bless him. I hope he makes it," Simoncelli said. "We walked away and thought that we had just seen this guy die."