Two men are being hailed as heroes after they stopped to save a man who had a seizure and drove into a water-filled ditch in Indiana.
The vehicle veered of Interstate 80/94 in Lake Station, Indiana and had become submerged in a water-filled ditch Monday afternoon, police said.
“Everybody’s just driving by the guy, taking pictures with their phones out,” said Jesse Rodriguez. “I just couldn’t do that.”
Rodriguez was driving with his coworker Mike Nieto when the pair saw the accident and immediately took action.
The men found an elderly man inside the vehicle who was incoherent and having a medical emergency.
“He was going into seizures,” Rodriguez said. “He was going crazy. His foot was on the gas pedal and there was smoke coming from the passenger side of the hood.”
Rodriguez managed to get in through the passenger side of the car to undo the man’s seatbelt and turn the engine off. That’s when the car started to tilt, and the pair realized it was dangling off a log at the bottom of the murky water.
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“He was so incoherent that if that car would’ve slipped, he wouldn’t have gotten out. He would’ve drowned,” Rodriguez said.
The men talked with the driver and interacted with him until paramedics arrived.
“I was nervous because the guy stopped shaking and we thought he died,” Nieto said. “Then he started moving again and we were like, ‘Oh thank God, he’s not dead.’ I just called 911.”
Police said the driver has been treated and released from the hospital.
“I just hope someone would do that for me,” Rodriguez said.
