Stingl: South Shore Yacht Club bartender pulls a drowning woman from Lake Michigan
One minute Parker Gaitens was bartending as usual at South Shore Yacht Club and the next he's jumping into dark, chilly Lake Michigan to save a woman whose kayak had overturned.
Like most emergencies we encounter in life, it all happened so fast. There's little time to think. Just to act.
"A gentleman came into the club. He noticed that there was a kayak that was upside down with the paddle floating away from it. I thought that was kind of odd, so I walked out with him and his wife to go check it out. We got to the end of the dock and realized there was an unresponsive person in the water," said Parker, 27.
I contacted him and asked him to share the story after I heard about the incident from a club member. It happened Tuesday evening.
"By all accounts, she's OK and alive because of him," that member, Tom Matthews, told me. "No one knows how they would respond in a situation like that until it presents itself. I just think what he did was outstanding."
The man with Parker quickly called 911. Parker took off his shirt and shoes and jumped in the lake with a life preserver. It was the area between two long piers known as the horseshoe.
He swam toward the woman, who was bobbing face-up in the water. She was wearing a wetsuit and life jacket. The other man joined Parker in the water and helped get the woman onto the pier.
Another club member joined them and they began doing CPR to get the woman breathing again. Her face was pale and her lips purple. She appeared to be in her 30s.
"She was full of water. As we were doing chest compressions, we kept having to turn her on the side to let it out," Parker said.
Police and rescue workers arrived quickly.
"The call was at 7:24 p.m.," Milwaukee Fire Department Deputy Chief David Votsis said. "The call came in as a kayaker in the water. How she got in there, I don't know."
The lake was calm, so Parker and the others also wondered why she capsized. They watched as she was placed in an ambulance and taken to Ascension St. Francis Hospital.
"I'm concerned about her well-being. The whole thing was just a scary experience altogether," Parker said. He's a strong swimmer but has never faced a situation like this before.
Parker has worked at South Shore for five years and lives not far from there. After the adrenaline rush of the rescue, he found some dry clothes and went back to work for an hour or so before someone else covered the rest of his 4 to 11 p.m. shift.
Police came into the bar and talked to Parker about what happened. He learned the woman's name but didn't think he should share it with me. The protocol in a situation like this is whatever feels right to you.
I couldn't find any TV news coverage of the rescue, which surprised me. Maybe it's because no one was missing or dead.
I didn't ask Parker the usual question about whether he's a hero. No one ever says yes to that, even when heroic actions are taken.
This woman needed help, and these strangers were there for her. I hope she gets a chance to meet them under happier circumstances.
Contact Jim Stingl at (414) 224-2017 or jstingl@jrn.com. Connect with my public page at Facebook.com/Journalist.Jim.Stingl