He told ABC 7 Chicago that he “wasn’t going to let that baby die” and could see that the mother was “too panicked to do anything”.
Cundiff recalled holding the stroller that had the eight-month-old girl in, while treading water for several minutes.
He said they both went under a few times, but were helped up a ladder to safety and taken to hospitals in separate ambulances. Both are in good health.
Jesus fucking christ. I’ve done a few rough water rescues. Usually tourists who don’t know a break, and a few times locals who just get mixed up. Any one can get into a bad situation. But a lake in Chicago? Bruh I’d fucking DIE, and I’m a consider myself a strong swimmer, one of the stronger more skilled watermen or wahine at my break. Like at a beach of a break you are expecting it and people are looking for it, but at a park in winter?
I’ve had to one water rescue in a lake, and it sucked. The water was in the 50s and it was about 30 degrees outside. I can’t imagine doing one in Chicago.
And in my case the rescue wasn’t that difficult. I’m a scuba instructor at a university and we were doing a big dive weekend at the end of the Fall semester, and any time we have a bunch of people in the water, we like to leave one instructor on the surface to organize and be in charge of everything. A group came up yelling for help.
I ran into the water and swam out to meet them and tow in the victim while having my divemasters prep the aid station and assemble the O2 kits, and the guy was barely conscious and turning blue.
As I stripped his gear off, I noticed he was wearing a semi-dry wetsuit that was REALLY tight. I cut relief slits in the suit with my shears and by the time I’d dragged him out of the water he was fully awake and color had returned. Turns out he’d found the suit on Craigslist really cheap and insisted on using it even though it was too small, and between that and the colder water down deep his circulation had been restricted.
But even with that fairly easy rescue (the same suit that caused the problem also made him supper floaty), the cold air and water made it exhausting. I can’t imagine doing a much more difficult rescue in Chicago water.
Jesus fucking christ. I’ve done a few rough water rescues. Usually tourists who don’t know a break, and a few times locals who just get mixed up. Any one can get into a bad situation. But a lake in Chicago? Bruh I’d fucking DIE, and I’m a consider myself a strong swimmer, one of the stronger more skilled watermen or wahine at my break. Like at a beach of a break you are expecting it and people are looking for it, but at a park in winter?
Mad props to this beast.
I’ve had to one water rescue in a lake, and it sucked. The water was in the 50s and it was about 30 degrees outside. I can’t imagine doing one in Chicago.
And in my case the rescue wasn’t that difficult. I’m a scuba instructor at a university and we were doing a big dive weekend at the end of the Fall semester, and any time we have a bunch of people in the water, we like to leave one instructor on the surface to organize and be in charge of everything. A group came up yelling for help.
I ran into the water and swam out to meet them and tow in the victim while having my divemasters prep the aid station and assemble the O2 kits, and the guy was barely conscious and turning blue.
As I stripped his gear off, I noticed he was wearing a semi-dry wetsuit that was REALLY tight. I cut relief slits in the suit with my shears and by the time I’d dragged him out of the water he was fully awake and color had returned. Turns out he’d found the suit on Craigslist really cheap and insisted on using it even though it was too small, and between that and the colder water down deep his circulation had been restricted.
But even with that fairly easy rescue (the same suit that caused the problem also made him supper floaty), the cold air and water made it exhausting. I can’t imagine doing a much more difficult rescue in Chicago water.