A Man In A Kayak Helped Save A Terrified Little Boy In The St. Louis River
Every summer we hear about close calls or people actually drowning in lakes, pools, and rivers, but one young boy is lucky to be alive after he ended up stranded in the St. Louis River recently. According to FOX21 the boy who is only 6 years old was found treading water when fortunately a man in a kayak was in the area.
David Jones was out on the river in his kayak fishing when he heard a child crying for help and yelling for his dad. He actually had a fish on the line which he quickly cut and started paddling to the boy who was wearing a life jacket and bobbing up and down in the water. According to FOX9, the boy had been in the water holding on to a rope next to his dad who was in a sailboat when the wind picked up and the boat took off.
Jones who was wearing a GoPro at the time said the air temperature was only about 57 degrees at the time and they were well over 200 yards from shore. The boy was holding onto the rope from his father's sailboat. Apparently, when the wind had picked up his father was not able to turn the boat around to go get his son.
Since Jones was in just a kayak and would have flooded it if he would have pulled the boy onboard he had him hang on to the side of the boat while he paddled in. Once they got to shore Jones ran up to a home to ask for help and to get some towels to warm the boy up and call 911.
Jones said to FOX21: "I had to make minutes seem like seconds and seconds seem like milliseconds because in those types of situations the last thing you want is to have the person you’re trying to help feel like you know it’s going to take forever.” First responders were able to examine the boy and he was reunited with his father. Thank goodness he was there because even with the life jacket that little boy was probably so close to having hypothermia.