While vacationing in Maine this weekend, Christian Jacobus '96 helped rescue an 18-year old bicyclist who had fallen approximately 70 feet from a footbridge and was floating unconscious in the river below.
Philip Courtemanche was biking across a footbridge that spans the Kennebec River in Skowhegan, Maine, Friday afternoon when he lost control of his bicycle and fell into the river.
In an interview yesterday, Jacobus said after he saw Courtemanche fall, he descended the river bank and helped Courtemanche resume breathing before medical assistance arrived.
"By the time I got there, I saw him floating face down in the river right near the shore," Jacobus said. "I got to him and flipped him over. His lips were blue and one of his eyes was swollen shut. He wasn't breathing."
Jacobus said he administered two breaths of mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to the unconscious Courtemanche.
"He gasped and started breathing again," Jacobus said.
According to a spokesman for the Kennebec Valley Medical Center in Augusta, Maine, Courtemanche was in satisfactory condition last night.
Although he succeeded in reviving Courtemanche, Jacobus said he has no formal training in cardiopulmonary resuscitation.
"I just kind of improvised," he said.
Jacobus, who was in Maine for the weekend visiting a friend, said he and his friend were walking across the bridge when they encountered the cyclist and another individual.
"About halfway across we saw two people coming toward us, riding on the outside of the bridge's rail on the lip, which was about four or five feet wide," Jacobus said. "He said, 'Don't worry. I'm a professional,' as he passed us."
"When I looked back again he had disappeared off the side of the bridge," Jacobus said.
