MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. — A Georgia teen who fell six stories from a hotel balcony trying to help a fellow tourist suffered just bruises and scrapes in his harrowing fall.

            Matthew Savage was reaching up to the balcony one floor up to grab a bathing suit that had fluttered down from the 11th floor when he felt himself tumble over the railing.

            The Gainesville, Ga., 17-year-old hit other balconies on his way down and slammed onto a slanted rooftop covering the Tropical Winds’ lazy river. He slid off that roof into the bushes.

            ‘‘I just closed my eyes,’’ Savage said Saturday, nursing scrapes and bruises on his back and legs.

            After he landed in the bushes, he got up and started walking back to his room. But paramedics strapped him to a board and flew him to nearby hospital for an examination. He said a full body scan and other tests showed he was OK.

            ‘‘This was a ’God is real’ event,’’ his sister, Mandy Baker, said.

            Tracy Weeks, of Raleigh, N.C., said her son’s swimsuit seemed in reach of the balcony below, so she asked Savage to reach for it.

            ‘‘This has been the worst nightmare of my life,’’ she said. ‘‘I couldn’t sleep.

            ‘‘Somebody was looking out for this child.’’