Two landscapers working in Pitt Meadows rescued a drowning victim on Saturday.
Sady Baggen-Mueller was working at a property along Reichenbach Road when she and her helper Shane Bishop heard a splash. He called to her, saying someone was in the ditch. She answered that it was probably just a beaver, but at his insistence, went for a look.
They saw the back of a man’s head and his upper back floating in the water. They were shocked when the body moved, as the man stood up out of the water, and then went back in face-first, again becoming mostly submerged.
Baggen-Mueller called 9-1-1. Bishop jumped into the ditch to assist the man, and by the time the 28-year-old landscaper got the slippery and heavy body out of the water, he was not showing vital signs, and appeared to have drowned.
“He was limp and very heavy, and he was purple, and had no heartbeat,” said Baggen-Mueller. “He was completely dead, but we got him out.”
She tried to pump the water out of his lungs and did CPR, and his eyes became responsive. He was trying to breathe. An ambulance arrived about a minute later, and paramedics took over and were able to revive the man quickly. He was talking to emergency responders as he was taken to hospital.
Pitt Meadows Fire Department assistant chief Brad Perry said it cannot be confirmed the man was dead when he was pulled from the water, but that members of the public, followed by paramedics, stabilized his condition.
The man lives locally, and his emergency appears to have originated in a mental health crisis. The victim is back with his family, and doing well.
• Pitt Meadows Firefighters also responded to a double overdose at a property on Hale Road on Saturday.
They found two people unconscious. One man they were able to awaken, but the other had to be resuscitated using Naloxone, which blocks the effects of opioid drugs.
