Two 18-year-old men are heroes after they came across a man struggling in the water earlier this month.
Friends Joseph Lombard and Christian Sandor were hiking at Indian Well State Park in Shelton right after a heavy downpour earlier this month. They saw a man in distress near the falls.
“That’s when he went under,” Lombard said. “And a minute later, he popped up floating face down. He didn’t have a pulse. He was completely pale, no color, and his friend was screaming.”
They began CPR. Sandor called 911. He credits the Boy Scouts for knowing what to do.
“I was a scout for about 12 years,” Sandor said. “It’s all the training you never thought you’d had to use.”
Lombard, a member of the U.S. Air Force Auxiliary, was able to bring 35-year-old helicopter mechanic, Fred Santoro, back to life. LifeStar airlifted him to the hospital.
“I was just looking out the window a lot of at the blades,” Santoro said. “I was just happy to fly again and also I was just thinking, OK lock this in your brain don’t ever want this to happen again.”
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All three men now stay in touch, and they are planning to meet again soon.
“I want to say thank you to them,” Santoro said. “They did a great job that day. Their training kicked in and they handled it well. A lot of people can get flustered in situations like that, and they didn’t.”
