801 Crockett Street, Shreveport, Louisiana 71101
318/ 673-6655 ● FAX: 318/ 673-6656 ● www.shreveportfire.org

Kelvin J. Cochran, Fire Chief

June 6, 2002

PRESS RELEASE
To: Newsroom
For Immediate Release
Contact: Brian A. Crawford, Public Information Officer
Phone: 673-6652, cell: 455-2609, page: 675-2137

Cross Lake Drowning Thwarted

Firefighter and witness pull man from water

A Shreveport man nearly drowned this afternoon before being pulled from Cross Lake after passing out from a possible underlying cardiac problem. Two men are being credited with saving the 87 year old’s life - one being a Shreveport firefighter. The incident occurred around 12:45 p.m. at the loading and unloading portion of the Public Boat Launce, 5900 South Lakeshore Drive. Fire Inspector Mike Hood told officials that he was on a lunch break at the lake when he noticed an elderly man slumped over the side of a boat face down in the water. Inspector Hood and another witness, Richard Cooper, raced over and pulled the elderly man out of the water and onto the nearby bank. Hood, also an Emergency medical Technician, said that initially the man was not breathing but after opening an airway began to respond. Hood then called 911.

When other firefighters and paramedics arrived on the scene, they placed the elderly man into a medic unit where a cardiac ECG monitor showed a heart abnormality. Additional medical treatment provided at the scene included an IV treatment and supplemental oxygen. The man was transported by the Fire Department to Willis Knighton Medical Center on Greenwood Road where he later went into cardiac arrest (not breathing and no pulse). At this writing, the man had regained a pulse and was breathing on his own in the Emergency Room of the hospital. ###