A Winnipeg woman who rescued a child and her father from drowning in the Red River on August 24 near St. John’s Park is being called a hero, but she said she doesn’t feel like one. “I’m just a mom. I don’t feel like a hero,” Jayclyn Morrissette, 32, told CBC.
Woman saves two lives
Representative image
On Monday (August 24) evening, Jayclyn Morrissette was taking a walk with her neighbour at St. John’s Park in Winnipeg’s North End. When they stopped at a bench overlooking the Red River, she ‘noticed a little girl flailing in the water’. Her neighbour ran to find the parents, who were frantically searching for their daughter. Morrissette, on the other hand, went directly to the water’s edge. But before she could even do anything, she saw the child’s father jumping into the water. “I got down to the edge when the father had jumped in, and it took about 10 seconds before I realized he was not coming back up,” Morrissette told the outlet. He was trying to save his daughter. Instead, within ten seconds, he began sinking. Morrissette didn’t wait another minute. She emptied her pockets and jumped in. What followed may look heroic, but for Morrissette, it was acting with urgency. She grabbed the father first, the closer target. But he was panicking and unknowingly pulling her down with him. Her neighbour, who was still on the riverbank, was trying to call 911. Morrissette recalled that trying to rescue the father was difficult, so her neighbour helped her. The neighbour grabbed her, and she held on to the child’s father. Soon, the man was out of the water. Morrissette didn’t rest. She swam back out for the girl. When she got closer, the girl was no longer moving. The child was unconscious. “As she swam backwards to the shoreline with the unconscious child on her chest, she began performing life-saving measures and continued those efforts upon reaching shore,” the Winnipeg police said in a news release. While swimming back, Morrissette was already working to expel water from the girl’s lungs. “When I pulled her out, she was lifeless. As I was swimming back, I was also pumping her stomach,” she said. Morrissette knew CPR. She had learned it more than a decade earlier, one of those skills people acquire and hope never to use. But here, the skill was absolutely life-saving. She and her neighbour began compressions on the wet grass while they waited for emergency responders at the park. The child was taken to hospital and was in critical condition when she arrived. The girl was later stabilized. Doctors expect her to recover fully.
What happened next
But for Morrissette, recovery looked different. In the days after that evening, she didn’t sleep. When she closed her eyes, she saw the girl’s face. The nightmares became an everyday occurrence. “Her eyes were open and her tongue was purple, so that’s all I could see every time I closed my eyes. I didn’t sleep for a couple of days,” Morrissette said. Once the adrenaline wore off, she realized that she had suffered injuries to her neck and shoulder. She started taking painkillers for her injuries and is now waiting to undergo further testing if her injuries do not heal. The police have not released the name or age of the child or the people involved. However, in the news release, they said the woman who saved the girl and her father showed ‘remarkable courage and selflessness’ in saving people who were strangers to her, with little regard for her own safety. While the world considers Morrissette a hero, she does not look at it that way. “I’m just a mom. I don’t feel like a hero,” she said. She thinks someone else in her situation would have done the same. “I’m glad I was there. They’re lucky I was there. I wish it just never happened,” she said. She further added, “Be safe. Watch your kids at all times. It only takes a second.” The woman added that she is still recovering from her injuries but is glad everyone is safe.
