Today’s Telegraph-Journal had a really sad story about a pair of men who tried to save a drowning man at Fisher Lakes.
I’d highly recommend reading it – these guys are real heros – no matter the outcome:
The images play over and over in their heads.
Jeremy Whipple, taking off his sunglasses to wipe his eyes at Fisher Lakes in Rockwood Park Tuesday, says, ‘It’s hard to sleep sometimes,’ because he is haunted by the memories of trying to save a man who drowned in the lake Saturday. Ben Bartlett, right, who joined Whipple in trying to save the 39-year-old man, says its tough knowing the victim didn’t survive.
The children’s screams for help, from a tiny island in Fisher Lakes.
A sudden dash toward the cries, diving into the murky water, searching for a drowned man they had never met.
And while the memories haunt them, Jeremy Whipple and Ben Bartlett say they don’t regret a thing.
“If a similar situation occurred again, I would do it in a heartbeat,” said Bartlett, 23.
“It just feels surreal. It feels like a nightmare,” Whipple, 33, said Tuesday, standing with Bartlett along the secluded third cove of the Fisher Lakes beach in Rockwood Park. “But I think in these situations, you either react or you freeze.”
The two men – unknown to each other – were swimming with their families on Saturday when they rushed to help a drowning 39-year-old man, who was later pronounced dead at Saint John Regional Hospital. Police haven’t released his name.
Whipple had barely set his cooler on the sand when he heard the hysterical screams of a woman nearby. At first he thought a child was in trouble, and swam out to the island a short distance from the shore, where the water was about three metres deep.
A few kids were on the island, screaming, “He’s drowning. He’s drowning.”
After two dives to the bottom, Whipple felt his foot touch the man’s torso.
He dove down again and tried to lift the man up by the armpits, but something on the lake bottom cut Whipple’s foot, and he sank into the mud.
“It took every ounce of strength to pull him up,” Whipple said. “I was taking in water myself.”
From that point, Bartlett and another man helped get the victim to the island shore.
The men screamed for help from lifeguards, who quickly rushed to the island.
“They were lightning fast,” Whipple said.
Bartlett was actually one of the first swimmers to try and help the man, but he was unable to find him underwater.
“I knew every second was precious,” Bartlett said.
After lifeguards and firefighters brought the man back to the main shore, and transported him to the hospital, Bartlett and Whipple were treated by paramedics.
“I felt like I was going to be sick,” Bartlett said. “I felt light-headed. And we were unsure if the victim was going to live.”
Whipple said he was so exhausted from the rescue, he wasn’t sure if he would make it back to shore.
The shock and adrenaline made his limbs numb, he said, and he had trouble breathing. He also vomited water.
Whipple was taken to the hospital for observation and he was the wound on his foot was treated.
“When they told me he didn’t live, that’s when I broke down,” said Whipple, a father of two, who works at Dooly’s at Prince Edward Square.
“It’s hard to sleep sometimes,” he said, taking off his sunglasses to wipe his eyes. “I just feel bad for the family. My condolences go to them, and my prayers are with them, too.”
Although Bartlett said he is proud of his decision to try to save the man, it’s tough knowing he didn’t survive.
“It was just like, my whole world fell apart,” said the District 8 teacher’s assistant. “But we tried our best.”
Police have confirmed the 39-year-old man was towing a young child when he lost strength and slipped below the surface. An autopsy is underway.
Insp. Bruce Connell of the Saint John Police Force commended Bartlett, Whipple and the other civilians who stepped in to help.
“When someone’s in the water and people can see, I think that’s a natural reaction to try and help someone.”
A clinical psychologist at the University of New Brunswick Saint John agrees.
“I think for some people, it’s an immediate knee-jerk response,” said Mary Ann Campbell, associate professor at UNBSJ. “You see someone else at risk and you feel compelled to do something – often without thinking about the risk to yourself.”
She said it points to people’s natural instinct to help others survive when life is at risk.
Whipple said it will take a long time for the gruesome images to leave his mind.
“It just makes you realize how precious life is.”
