A brave 10-year-old girl managed to save her father’s life after a kayaking accident in a Louisiana river that led to him nearly drowning. According to the New York Post, 46-year-old Michael Painter nearly lost his life when he and his daughter, Carson, kayaked in the Bogue Chitto River on June 18.
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Father Saved From Drowning In River By Heroic 10-Year-Old Daughter
Michael told the outlet how grateful he was for his daughter’s quick thinking. “She saved my life, if she wouldn’t have did what she did, I wouldn’t be here right now,” said Michael.
The Washington Parish Sheriff’s Office made a Facebook statement about the freak accident. They received a report about an injured man who was kayaking, the call coming directly from the daughter. She told the authorities that her father hit his head and was “bleeding badly.”
Michael told the outlet that he and Carson enjoyed viewing softshell turtles laying their eggs at a spot in the river. She convinced him to buy her a kayak, so the two kayaked to the location together.
“Well I being the 46 year old trying to be the cool daddy, I said ‘watch this!'” Michael recalled. “I took off down the hill and I’m fixing to do a front flip.” The father lost his balance, his head smashing right into a pile of jagged rocks at the bottom of the river.
Michael quickly found himself disoriented underwater. “I can see the surface of the water and it’s not even a foot away but I’ll tell you, it might as well had been 100 miles away, man,” he said. “I’m drifting down the river. I can feel my heels dragging along the bottom.”
Suddenly, the father realized he was paralyzed. The accident made him break a vertebra, and he bruised his spine. Michael described himself as feeling “helpless and hopeless.”
Carson first thought her father was pretending as he failed to come to the surface. That was, until she spotted the blood in the water. His daughter rushed into the river to help her father before he could drown.
The 10-Year-Old Girl’s Brave Rescue Of Her Drowning Father
Michael was sure that he was going to die. “I’m preparing for it. And it’s going to hurt.” Soon after, he felt his daughter grab his hand. “She grabbed my hand bro,” Michael said. “That was the biggest relief in my life, man.”
The young daughter dragged her 6-foot, 200-pound father out of the water as far as she could. She was a crying mess during the rescue, but her father managed to calm her down. He then gave her instructions to paddle to the car, get his phone, and call for help.
Carson did just that. She quickly kayaked downstream and found higher ground to call 911. The first rescuers who arrived on the scene had to initially abort their mission due to strong and dangerous currents.
They eventually used a boat to find the injured father and brought him over to EMS for treatment. It took about an hour before Michael heard rescuers find him.
Michael also recalled how difficult it was to put his life in his daughter’s hands. “Man it was just hard to let my little girl go down that river by herself, you know what I’m saying? I’m risking her life to save mine. She was scared to death. It’s dangerous for a kid by herself.”
For Carson’s heroic efforts, the sheriff’s office is holding a ceremony this Saturday. They will be granting Carson a citation for bravery.