If not for the hasty response of neighbors and a Summit County sheriff’s deputy, a man drowning in freezing water might have died Friday night in Coventry Township.
Deputy Tim Kensinger was on duty in the area of South Turkeyfoot Road and Portage Lakes Drive when a call came over his police radio shortly after 11 p.m. A dispatcher said someone was drowning in the Iron Channel, a body of water that connects the East and West Reservoirs.
“When I got there, I saw two men in about waist-deep water and another man holding on to a ladder, almost completely submerged,” he said.
He pulled the two men — 24-year-olds Christian Thacker and Cody Audstadt, who live nearby — from the water and then went to get the drowning man. By that time, another neighbor, 41-year-old Shawn Huff, had gone to help the drowning man. Kensinger and Huff worked together to pull the man out of the water and onto the bank.
The water was barely above 0 degrees, Kensinger said. Friday night’s weather included high winds, snow and bitter cold.
Kensinger and Huff worked to warm the man, a 24-year-old Zanesville resident who attended the University of Akron.
“I got him on the bank and gave him a sternum rub because he was unresponsive,” the deputy said, “and then he opened his eyes.”
He was still not responsive, though. They took off some of the man’s wet clothes and wrapped him in a blanket until paramedics arrived. The nearly drowned man and one of the would-be rescuers were transported to Summa Barberton Hospital.
“And the rest is history,” he said.
Condition reports were not available from the hospital, either because the men had been discharged by Tuesday or they opted out from the hospital patient listing. Kensinger said the man who almost drowned was struck with hypothermia and his temperature had dropped to 90.5 degrees at one point.
Kensinger, who declined to speculate how the man ended up in the water, said in a police report that he smelled alcohol on the man’s breath during the rescue.
The deputy described the rescue as a community effort.
“The two neighbors showed a lot of courage to come out at 11:30 at night in the winter cold to try to do their best,” he said. “I commend them for that — it’s something special. Most people wouldn’t do that.”
Asked to respond to the community calling him a hero, Kensinger said he was just doing his job.
“I’m just doing what I’m supposed to do, guys: take care of the community.”
Nick Glunt can be reached at 330-996-3565 or nglunt@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter @NickGluntABJ.