by Connie Tabbert
Editor
LA PASSE — A man was saved from drowning by neighbours’ quick reactions Friday night near La Passe.
Around 7:15 p.m., Brian Linkletter received a phone call from next door neighbour Pierrette Cottrell advising there was a body in the Ottawa River.
“I grabbed my kayak and a paddle and went out,” recalled Mr. Linkletter adding later, he also grabbed his life jacket.
Up the river, JP Laroque also received a phone call about the body in the river. With his boat not yet in the water, he was able to take the neighbour’s aluminum boat and using a kayak paddle, began going downstream towards the body.
Mr. Linkletter was able to grab onto the man in the water, however, while trying to work with Mr. Laroque to get him safely to shore, Mr. Linkletter fell into the water.
The two men were able to tie the man to Mr. Laroque’s boat, who then brought him to shore.
Once the man was out of the water Mr. Linkletter went home.
“I was so cold,” he recalled.
While taking a warm bath to warm up, Mr. Linkletter said it felt like his body was on fire. Concerned for his health, he asked his children to go and ask the paramedics, who had arrived on scene just as he was leaving, to come and check him out.
However, he admitted, by the time they arrived, he felt much better.
“It was pretty scarey for a while there,” Mr. Linkletter recalled.
Deputy-Fire Chief Mike Moore of the Whitewater Region Fire Department said shortly after 7 o’clock Friday night the OPP requested the department respond to a water rescue, but wasn’t sure if there was one or two people in the water.
Eight firefighters from Westmeath and Beachburg responded. While they can’t go in the water, Deputy-Chief Moore said they provide public safety, which includes crowd control and ensuring others don’t go into the water.
Upon arrival at the scene, one man was being rescued from the water.
The man was taken by ambulance to hospital because of his body temperature, Deputy-Chief Moore said.
Firefighters left the scene about 9 p.m. and it wasn’t until the next morning it was confirmed there was no other body in the river.
Looking back to the rescue, Mr. Linkletter and Mr. Laroque said there was much more going on.
Pierette and Phil Cottrell were sitting down to a late dinner when she noticed a canoe floating in the Ottawa River, which is just outside their back patio. She saw something else, so grabbed the binoculars and at first thought she saw a deadhead in the water.
“Then I saw it was a man and I shouted to him, “Are you okay,?”
He said yes, but he wasn’t moving, she recalled.
Watching the man, they realized he had a life jacket on, but it wasn’t done up.
“I realized he was moving around, but he wasn’t going anywhere,” Ms. Cottrell said.
While Mr. Cottrell tried to snag the empty canoe with a fishing line, Ms. Cottrell kept talking to him.
“Then he wasn’t responding,” she said.
Mr. Cottrell called 911 while Ms. Cottrell called Mr. Linkletter, who went out in his kayak.
She then called Mr. Laroque and asked him to go out with his boat because there was a guy in the water not responding.
While Mr. Cottrell was talking to the 911 dispatcher, Ms. Cottrell went to another neighbour’s home, but no one answered the door.
At one point, Mr. Cottrell said he had to hang up the home phone and call back the dispatcher on his cell phone because he was losing service while trying to keep her informed of what was happening outside.
Once Mr. Laroque and Mr. Linkletter had the man, Ms. Cottrell got busy grabbing up blankets to take to the neighbour’s beach where the man was brought to.
“He was totally incoherent,” Ms. Cottrell said. “He was cold and blue.”
Mr. Laroque added, “We thought he was dead. He was barely alive.”
Mr. Cottrell said as they brought the man to shore, “it was like John Wayne and the calvary arrived. There was police, firefighters and paramedics.
“An officer and a paramedic carried him into Irene’s house and put him in front of the fire place.
“They tried to take his clothes off, but ended up cutting them off.”
When questioned if there was someone else in the canoe, no one could answer yes or no.
The OPP searched, but no one else was rescued.
While not sure, the rescuers believe the man, whom they later discovered was a neighbour, was in the water for about 30 minutes.
“He’s very lucky,” Mr. Cottrell said.
Mr. Laroque agreed, noting at this time of the year, the river is high, the current is strong and there’s lots of debris.
Mr. Linkletter, who works at Algonquin College, said he has spoken to people in the outdoor adventure program and he said right now the river is like “liquid death,” because it’s just so cold.
Mr. Cottrell noted there was still ice on the river a week ago.
They all agreed it’s not really safe this time of year to be on the Ottawa River in a canoe.
Mr. Laroque, who has much experience with water, said the man is lucky because there’s no one on the river this time of year, who would have seen what happened.
Mr. and Ms. Cottrell agree, noting if they hadn’t been having a very late supper, they would never have seen the man in the river.
“We would have been watching the hockey game with our backs to the windows,” Mr. Cottrell said.
The rescuers did not want to name their neighbour because he is a private man.
When the writer spoke to the neighbour, he did not want to talk about the incident.
“I just want to forget about it,” he said. “I thanked them the next morning. Let’s not talk about it again.”
Editor’s Note: After the story was published, we were advised:
Westmeath firefighters Marc McCulloch and Mike Cribari and an OPP officer carried the man up to the house.
