CORNWALL – The lifeless body of a scuba diver was pulled from Lake St. Lawrence, off the shore of Guindon Park, Saturday night.
But the rescue wasn’t without the brave efforts of a Good Samaritan along with the victim’s wife.
Cornwall police, firefighters and paramedics were called to the Trillium Drive boat launch in the west end of the park around 7:45 p.m.
The diver, who was alone in the water at the time, ran into trouble roughly 200 feet from shore, southwest of the boat launch.
A witness said he was waving his arms and crying out for help.
“He sounded like he was in distress,” Mike Cleary told Cornwall Newswatch, “So I ran over, there was a boat coming in…that blue boat that was out there (rescuing the diver), he was the last one in and I said ‘Is that your blue boat?’ and he said ‘yeah’ and I said ‘There’s a diver out there that’s calling for help.’..and he took off right away.”
Cleary said the victim’s wife had, in the meantime, jumped into the lake and started swimming toward the diver. “We were sitting here and we heard’em. Noise carries in here. She started to swim, that’s when I ran over and yelled ‘Do you want us to call 911?’ and she said ‘Yes!’,” Cleary said.
Cornwall firefighters launched their rescue boat minutes after arriving on scene and sped out to the boat and two people holding on the diver.
After loading his body into the boat, it sped to shore while rescue workers performed CPR.
After guiding his boat back into shore, the Good Samaritan was understandably distraught and appeared to be in shock over what had happened as he was consoled by family members.
The condition of the diver, who was taken to hospital by ambulance, is not known.
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