Student saves man in canal

Feb 26 2008 By Edward Chadwick

A STUDENT was hailed a hero today after he hauled a drowning man from a freezing Birmingham canal.

Daniel Bridgewater was walking home from lectures with friends when he spotted the man who was partly submerged in the Birmingham and Fazeley Canal, off Summer Row, at 3.40pm yesterday.

The 20-year-old, assisted by friends, managed to drag the man on to footpath and help him until paramedics arrived to give him first aid.

The man, in his 50s and who has not been named, had suffered a head injury and was coughing up water. He is expected to make a full recovery.

Ambulance bosses say they are certain that the quick-thinking music student saved the man's life.

But music student Daniel, from Law Street, West Bromwich, said: "Anyone would have done the same thing.

"You can't just leave someone else in the water when you know that you can do something about it. I'm just pleased to hear that he's recovering."

Onlookers had rung for an ambulance but were unable to lift the man, wearing a shirt and tie, out of the water.

Daniel, who plays the tuba and studies music at nearby Birmingham Conservatoire, rushed to help with friend Joe Cowell, aged 18, and they managed to drag the man free from the water by his leg.

He said: "There were probably five or six people there but I was the first to react.

"I got him most of the way out of the water and Joe helped to get him on to the bank.

"I put him in the recovery position and put my jumper under his head.

"He was bleeding quite badly like he had hit his head."

An Ambulance Service spokesman said: "There seems little doubt that their quick actions saved the life of this man."