Neighbours band together to rescue man from frigid river By:  Alexandra Paul Posted: 7:00 PM CDT Wednesday, Oct. 31, 2018

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 30/10/2018 (2256 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It was dark, cold and windy late Monday night when Dan Donahue and his neighbours heard screams coming from the nearby river.

“Help me! Help me! Help me!”

The Kingston Crescent residents raced to the mucky banks of the Red River, where it was clear the the shouts of desperation were coming from a man who was thrashing in the frigid water.

They would later learn the man had capsized in a kayak and was in danger of drowning.

Donahue and his neighbour, Doug Maguire, hurried down the bank, wading through muck halfway up their shins. They couldn’t see the victim. But they could still hear his screams.

Their neighbour, John Synyshyn, hauled his canoe down the bank. Donahue and Maguire, both experienced canoeists, set off into the darkness, paddling rapidly into the middle of the river.

“We kept yelling at him to try and keep him alert. I guess it was 100 yards downstream. He was floating northward towards the St. Vital Bridge and we were able to locate him,” Donahue said.

“It probably took a couple of minutes to get out and grab on to him. The poor guy. He was in severe shock. Terror, you know,” Donahue said Wednesday.

Donahue recalled holding the victim by the wrists through the water.

They couldn’t haul him into the canoe for fear he would capsize them. While Donahue held the man who was still in the water, his neighbour paddled.

When they got to shore, the man scrambled up rocks to a waiting paramedic crew and was treated in an ambulance on the St. Vital Bridge.

‘The whole thing seemed bizarre to me. This time of year? The darkness? The cold water? The weather? Out in a kayak? You don’t do that’
– Dan Donahue 

“The whole thing seemed bizarre to me. This time of year? The darkness? The cold water? The weather? Out in a kayak? You don’t do that,” Donahue said.

Donahue is a local music producer, with a collection of Juno award nominations and other accolades. He’s produced music for the likes of Valdi, Heather Bishop and others, including some Fred Penner’s early recordings.

Glenn Zaretski, a fellow musician, said he was well into an unrelated conversation Wednesday with Donahue when his friend happened to mention the drama on the water.

“It’s a dangerous thing to do,” Zaretski said, calling his friend a hero.

“Dan’s low key… but he’s done these kinds of things before. He pulled somebody out of a burning building once and he didn’t tell me about that until years later,” Zaretski said.

“I go canoeing and I would have been afraid to go in the middle of a river with a guy that’s drowning. He’d be pulling you in,” Zaretski said.

“And this was Dan and one of his neighbours. They crawled through the muck and it must have been a lot because when I left his place, I (saw) his runners in a pail of water. He can’t get the muck off, they’re full of it.”

After the rescue, Donahue and Maguire paddled back into the river and towed the kayak to shore.

Winnipeg City Police said on Wednesday they have the kayak, which they believe was stolen, but have yet to find its owner, which means no charges have been laid.

Donahue recalled it seemed odd the man didn’t utter a single word to the pair who rescued him.

“The whole thing was bizarre. My son was at home and he didn’t even know. I didn’t have time to tell him where I was going. I came back 45 minutes later and just said ‘Come have a look at me.’

“I’m covered head to toe in mud and he said ‘What the hell happened to you?’ That’s how fast it was. I had just run down to the river and I didn’t have time to come back and tell him.”

About a decade ago, Donahue was passing a building on St. Mary’s Road when he saw flames. He doubled back and pulled a man out of the building’s foyer. The man had been working outside when he smelled smoke, pulled open a door only to be caught in a flashover. It rolled over the man, blackening him from head to toe, singing his hair and leaving him severely burned. Donahue said the image is engrained in his memory.

“Pulling a guy out of the river, it was weird but not quite as traumatic as dealing with someone who’s seriously injured,” Donahue said.

alexandra.paul@freepress.mb.ca