Fraser Valley RCMP are crediting a father-son duo with saving the life of a Surrey fisherman.
Police say Daniel Bergmann and his 23-year-old son, Luke, were fishing at Peg Leg near Chilliwack Sept. 5 when they heard screams from the shore about a fisherman who had been swept away.
Apparently, the 57-year-old had slipped off of a rock he was standing on. In the water, his chest waders began to fill and drag him under.
The father-son team, who had a boat anchored upstream and raced to the rescue, caught up to the man in time to see him go under. They pulled him aboard and took him to shore
Police say the exhausted victim told them he was just giving up the fight for his life when the pair pulled him out.
Const. Tracy Wolbeck said the rescue was the third on the river this summer, all of which had the potential to be fatal.
Heroic efforts such as those by the Bergmanns “really restores the human condition to see people going so far out of their way to help a person in obvious, dire need,” she said.
“There is no question that these men are absolute heroes.”
The victim was released from hospital the same day and is recovering at home.
