After nearly drowning in the cold dark water of the Detroit river, one pregnant woman now owes her life, and that of her newborn baby, to two police officers who risked their own lives to save them.
Officers Brian Gadwell and his partner Steven Rauser jumped into action after they came across a woman holding on for dear life, trying to pull herself up out of the freezing, rushing water of the Detroit river. The current was pulling her down, forcing her head under the water.
Without thinking twice about it, the officers jumped in to grab her. They were completely unaware that the woman was also pregnant.
“I thought I was gonna die,” Officer Gadwell recalls. “I was like, ‘I’m gone.’”
He wrapped his legs around her and used a long metal rod that was sticking out of the wall to hold them up. But his strength would only last so long against the relentless current and the dangerously cold temperatures of the water.
Officer Rauser dove in to assist his partner, and shortly thereafter, emergency crews arrived and pulled both men and the woman from the river. Miraculously, they were all alive.
The woman was rushed to the hospital where doctors performed an emergency C-section, and saved the life of her baby.
After the rescue, the officers took off their wet shoes and socks to warm up. Of course no one could have expected what they found on the pair of officers’ feet!