‘We thought it was a dog’: Heroic students save the life of a drowning man

Three courageous rowers braved chilling waters to save a man from drowning.

On Friday morning Joel Kelly, Luke McCann and Jonny Erskine had an unexpected disruption to their morning rowing practice on the River Lagan.

A man had fallen into the dangerous depths, and was unresponsive in the water. But the Queen’s Boat Club rowers pulled him out and resuscitated him.

Brave Joel said: “We thought it was a dog so we just started to move the boat over. Then when we got closer we realised it was a person. Myself, Jonny and Luke jumped in and swam over to him and pulled him onto the bank.”

The club uses the Lagan for daily practice

Joel told how people had been shouting from the pavement.

He added: “People shout stuff at us all the time, it was only when the cox Carol told us there was something in the water that we stopped.

“When we got him up on the bank we lay him down and that’s when we saw his face for the first time. I had never seen someone so blue before it was freaky.”

Jonny was equally shaken. He said: “I was really scared in case it was a child because he had a small build and obviously couldn’t swim.

“When I finally reached him and Joel got him out I was relieved in a weird way that it wasn’t a boy, and that he had some signs of life.”

He went on to describe the moment he gave the victim mouth to mouth, bringing him back to consciousness.

“The brief first aid training I’d got from army cadets about six years ago kicked in and I knew I had to push any emotions out of the way and check all his vital systems, so from there I just acted automatically and tried not to panic”

The boys then brought the man to the road, and put him in the recovery position until the emergency services arrived.

“We got a lift back to the boathouse in a fire engine and jumped in the showers. The adrenaline had worn off by this point so we were all shaking.” said Joel.

Jonny added: “A cup of tea did me a lot of good, when I finally got home I just lay down and tried to forget about it.”

The boys were brought back to the boathouse, on the edge of the Lagan

In the aftermath of the dangerous rescue, the boys have noticed a significant increase in their Facebook friend requests.

Jonny said: “We had a lot of really nice comments from loads of people saying how they appreciate what we did, which really means a lot.

“My family and girlfriend are really proud of me, although she’s keeping me in check and making sure I don’t get a big head.”

The boys both feel the experience was surreal. Jonny said: “It was crazy, I never thought I’d have to do anything like that.”

Joel was similarly surprised. He added: “It’s weird. If we hadn’t been rowing through at that exact point he could have drowned.

“It was just really good timing I guess.”