Teens helped pull unresponsive woman to shore
By Ed Nadolski
Editor in Chief
A Cedar Park neighborhood official is crediting several area children for their quick actions that likely saved a woman from drowning on Browns Lake July 18.
“In my eyes, they saved her life,” said Michael Barczak, secretary/treasurer for the Cedar Park Homeowners Association, which oversees the private neighborhood beach at the southeast corner of the lake in the Town of Burlington. “I was just so impressed with the kids – they really stepped up.”
Barczak speaks with firsthand knowledge because he was at the beach that night with several members of his family and at one point started chest compressions on the victim.
According to Barczak and other accounts of the incident, Cassidy Beachem, 13, and her cousin Lauren Beachem were swimming at the beach with several other children when Lauren noticed a woman face down in the water. Cassidy Beachem then went over to the woman to ask if she was OK and when she noticed the woman was unresponsive, Cassidy yelled for help and began to pull the woman by the arm in an attempt to get her to shore.
Lauren Beachem and the other children swimming with them – Jason Barczak, 10, Cassie Gostomski, 12, Linda Napierala, 11, Wyatt Bellian, 12, and Owen Barczak, 6 – also began to yell for help and succeeded in getting the attention of Michael Barczak and other adults who were there that evening.
At the same time, according to Michael Barczak, Luis Benitez, 14, reached the woman and succeeded in pulling her to shore with some help from Jason Barczak.
Meanwhile, Michael Barczak’s son, Jason Sr., and his wife, Pat, called 911 to summon the rescue squad.
Once the woman was on shore, Michael Barczak said, he began chest compressions and another adult Cedar Park resident, Andrew Schumacher, initiated mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.
Within seconds, Barczak said, Ashley Chase – an emergency medical technician who lives in the neighborhood – arrived and took over CPR.
In mere moments the victim revived and she was conscious and talking by the time the Burlington Area Rescue Squad and a Racine County sheriff’s deputy arrived, Barczak said.
“For all practical purposes, she looked dead,” he said of the condition of the victim when she was first brought to shore.
According to Lt. Steve Sikora of the sheriff’s department, the official report indicated the woman was “highly intoxicated” at the time of the near-drowning. She was transported to a local hospital for treatment and was later released.
Barczak said he believes the woman has been renting a house in Cedar Park for the summer.
“The lady was living and breathing thanks to the heroic actions taken by the children and our Cedar Park residents,” Barczak wrote in a report to other members of the Cedar Park Homeowners Association Board.
Barczak said he’s been busy since the rescue soliciting donations from local restaurants and ice cream shops as reward for the children who played a role in it.
“If they hadn’t been hollering, we wouldn’t have noticed her,” he added.
-
-
-
-
-