This past summer a member of the Tulahead summer staff was joining his friends at Bromley Rock. The river was high and moving fast, and Logan was unsure of wanting to swim across the river to join everyone else. He knew he was not a strong swimmer and so another staff member said that he would swim across with him. Logan agreed and half way across he got pulled into an undercurrent and swept away from the other boy swimming. 3 or so minutes later, thanks to a lady across the way who noticed Logan had been pulled under and started yelling, two of the Tulahead staff members who were there were able to locate him and bring him to shore to start CPR with a couple of others. They did CPR for 45 mins. until the ambulance arrived. The paramedics detected a very faint heartbeat and transported him to Princeton Hospital. He was then sent to Kelowna and spent a few weeks in intensive care. His parents were told by doctors that things were not looking good, and later Logan’s dad shared with us that he thought that he could very likely be driving to the hospital to see his son in the morgue.
But God is good, and thanks to the many ways that He assisted with this terrible accident, too many to list in a short letter, Logan is alive and well today continuing to pursue his university degree.
I wanted to write this letter because the two boys who did CPR were honoured yesterday with Silver medals of bravery for the role they played in saving Logan’s life. There is a youtube video posted from this night that ends with a picture of the two boys and Logan at the ceremony:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=eL6STSB2u_s#!
In past months I have heard so many crazy renditions of this terrible story. I want to clear a few up. Logan is alive and well with FULL mental and physical capabilities. Doctors, nurses, paramedics… there have been many who cannot believe this to be true considering what they saw on the day of the accident – but it is not only true, it is truly a miracle. I have also heard that he was jumping at Bromley and hit his head or his back (depending on who I spoke with) and that is why he went under. PLEASE be aware that all he was doing was swimming and the undercurrent pulled him under. I feel as though, for parents and visitors to our community, there should be a sign up at Bromley that warns of strong undercurrents when the river is high.
Logan was just a young adult joining his friends on a sunny afternoon at Bromley. We are all thankful for the way that God clearly had his eye on the situation and rescued Logan.
One nurse is quoted as saying, “there is no way he’s still alive. There is just no way he would come back from that.” Needless to say, Logan and his family are so thankful to God for the actual outcome, and not the nurse’s predicted one.
Karla Friesen
