Samaritan rescues mother/daughter

Published: March 24, 2008 | 6943rd good news item since 2003

An Indianapolis mother and her four-year-old daughter are recovering after their car crashed into a retention pond.

It happened Thursday morning.

Several people came to their rescue, including an Indianapolis nurse.

“She wasn’t breathing. She didn’t have a pulse.”

That’s how Sallie Seasor, a nurse at St Vincent Hospital, helped save the life of Sarah Lopez.

The girl rode with her mother, whose vehicle slid off the road into a retention pond during icy conditions.

“Her eyes popped open. She took a gasp. She had a lot of water in her lungs. She was really water logged,” said Seasor.

Paramedics rushed Sarah and her 38-year-old mother, Albertina Lopez, to the hospital.

Karen Day saw Albertina’s SUV slide on the ice.

“She was not even turning – just going straight and the vehicle started sliding and then flipped. It’s just very strange,” said Day.

Other witnesses joined Karen Day in the rescue.

Among them was Shawn Dilick, who turned around after passing the scene.

He freed four-year-old Sarah from her car seat under water.

“The seat belt, I grabbed the seat and threw it backwards and she grabbed the daughter and I took the daughter from her and went up to the bank,” said Dilick.

“Her daughter was in there so I assumed she was under water which she was, just trying to get them out,” said Vern Trabue.

“When cars go through that area, the cars pick up the water and the ice down there and it comes down this stretch and it is just like skating,” Day commented.

When the temperature drops, that standing water becomes a sheet of ice.

Day is leery of driving there.

“I will be more careful and I say to others just be more cautious,” she said.

As for a nurse’s advice about everyone knowing CPR, “It’s so valuable for everybody to have.
You never know what you are going to come upon,” said Seasor.

Published in Rescues
See also: www.wcbd.com