PIKE COUNTY -- A dramatic rescue happened on the Delaware River Monday. A man enjoying a day canoeing with his family nearly drowned, but two men who work near Stroudsburg saved his life.
Sal Lombardo and Joshua Turner both work for Adams Outdoor Advertising in the Stroudsburg Area. Yesterday they were helping with a river cleanup along the Delaware and say they were just in the right place at the right time.
Paddling for trash, that’s what Adams Outdoor Advertising employees Sal Lombardo and Joshua Turner thought they would be doing yesterday along the Delaware River.
But just as they came upon a rapid near the New York State line, they could see a man without a life jacket struggling for air.
His two kids and wife were nearby.
"Luckily, just luckily, we happened to be there at the right time. We were able to get over to them. Unfortunately, when we got there the gentleman was incoherent. He was under the water,” said Sal Lombardo of Tobyhanna.
The pair knew they had to move quickly and paddle their canoe toward the family. By the time Lombardo pulled the man out, he was already in trouble.
"He was completely blue. If we were two minutes later than we were, we wouldn't have been able to find him because by the time Sal got to him, he was two feet under the water,” said Turner of Mountain Top.
Lombardo used his own life jacket to help get the man onto a rock on the river’s edge. Then Turner began CPR with the help of the man’s wife.
"He would gurgle gurgle, we'd try rolling him to his side and the minute we'd stop, he'd stop breathing again,” said Turner.
After about three or four minutes, these men say the victim finally came to. There was no cell service, so Lombardo and Turner then took the man down river toward help.
They call the entire event life changing.
"As a dad, as two fathers having, seeing the sons there, we just didn't want this guy to go on our watch. It was emotional for us, we couldn't imagine what it was like for those kids watching,” said Lombardo.
"People came up to us and said, oh we were heroes and stuff like that, but it was just about being at the right place, at the right time to ultimately be in the right position to save his life. We went there to clean up garbage and we ended up saving a life,” said Turner.
Lombardo and Turner say they’ve heard that the man they helped save was taken to a hospital in Upstate New York and is doing well.
