Jaclyn Morrissette is being hailed as a hero after she jumped into Winnipeg’s Red River to save a girl and her father, who were both struggling to keep afloat
NEED TO KNOW
- A Canadian woman is being hailed as a hero after she jumped into Winnipeg’s Red River to save a girl and her father from drowning
- Jaclyn Morrissette pulled the girl from the water before performing CPR on her
- The girl was later hospitalized in critical condition but is now recovering, local police said
A Canadian woman is being hailed as a hero after jumping in a river to save a girl and her father from drowning.
Winnipeg police were called to the city’s St. John’s Park just before 7 p.m. on Monday, Aug. 24, for a report of a child who had fallen into the Red River, the Winnipeg Police Service (WPS) said in a statement.
When officers arrived at the scene, they learned that a bystander had already waded into the water to help pull the girl out and had already begun giving her CPR.
The bystander — identified as Jaclyn Morrissette — was on a walk with her neighbor in the park that Monday evening when she noticed the girl flailing in the water, Morrissette told CTV News.
“We looked for the parents,” Morrissette explained. “We saw them over on the park playground area. They were looking for her as well, so we had called for them to come over.”
Morrissette then followed the girl’s parents down to the water and was already planning to jump in and pull the girl out. However, the girl’s father rushed in before Morrissette could.
“Where he had jumped, it’s like a seven, maybe eight-foot drop just straight down,” she recounted. “He didn’t go down the little ramp; he went straight to the side. When he had jumped, I waited at least 10 seconds to see if he would come up, if he was able to swim.”
“When he didn’t come back up, I said, ‘Ah s—,’ and dumped my pockets and I jumped in after him,” Morrissette continued.
According to Morrissette, the girl’s father was still attempting to get his daughter out of the water, but had begun panicking and was pulling her down with him.
With the help of her neighbor and one of the man’s family members, they pulled the girl’s father onto the shore, but the girl was still in the water.
“I kicked it into overdrive to get her,” she told CTV, recounting how the girl wasn’t breathing by the time she reached her in the water.
“So I had flipped her onto her back and I put her on my chest and I started swimming backwards,” Morrissette shared. “When I was swimming, I was also pumping her stomach to try and get any water that was in, out, just to help [make] it easier so that when I got to shore they could start CPR.”
Morrissette also began performing CPR herself, and her neighbor took over shortly before police arrived at the scene.
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The girl, whose name and age were not made public, was immediately taken to a local hospital in critical condition, WPS said. She was later reported to be in stable condition and is now expected to make a full recovery.
“When I heard that, my heart skipped a beat and I started crying,” Morrissette told CTV. “I was so relieved because that was the main purpose of me going in the water. If the father hadn’t gone in the water, I still would have. My first instinct was to save her.”
Morrissette, who is also a mother herself, told Radio Canada she sustained several injuries in the incident to her neck and shoulder — though she didn’t notice until the adrenaline from the harrowing incident had subsided.
“I fully don’t comprehend what I did,” Morrissette added to CTV. “I just knew I had to do the right thing, and I knew we didn’t have time.”
Winnipeg police described Morrissette as “demonstrating remarkable courage and selflessness,” adding that she acted “with little regard for her own safety.”
Const. Claude Chancy told CTV that Morrissette’s actions prevented a tragedy.
“It’s selfless and courageous at the same time,” Chancy said of Morrissette. “The fact that she entered the water, saved one person, went back in without regard for her own life—that is truly heroic—and being able to save the child, bring the child back to shore, start CPR—amazing. We do commend her for that.”
However, Morrissette told Radio Canada that she doesn’t consider herself a hero.
“I’m just a mom,” she shared. “I don’t feel like a hero.”
Winnipeg police issued a reminder in the wake of the incident that “appropriate supervision and safety precautions should always be exercised when visiting parks, waterways, and other bodies of water throughout the city.”
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