Glen Ellyn teens pull elderly man from river, performs CPR

Just five weeks ago, 17-year-old Jake Howard of Glen Ellyn finished CPR certification classes at Wheaton College.

On Tuesday, he put his lifesaving skills to use while on a family vacation in Michigan, helping to rescue and revive an elderly man who had fallen into water.

Jake, his twin brother Matt, and friend Davis Anderson of Portage, Mich. were headed back on a boat to the Black River boat launch in South Haven about 9:30 a.m. when they noticed a man laying face down in water near the dock. Another man in waist deep water was struggling to pull his friend back to the dock.

The three teens jumped in the water, dragged the man to the landing and brought him on deck.

Howard said the man was unconscious, not breathing and suffering from a bleeding head wound.

He happened to have a CPR mask in his backpack, and used it to perform rescue breaths on the victim before starting chest compressions.

After two or three minutes, the man was breathing, said Howard, who is spending the summer as a lifeguard at Camp Wakeshma in Three Rivers, Mich.

“It was really frightening because I've never done it before in real life,” Howard said. “I was scared at first, but I realized how his life was on the line and you have to step up when that happens.”

His brother Matt, who helped bring the man onto the dock, said he was also unnerved by the situation, but when his brother started doing CPR, he knew the victim was in good hands.

“I calmed down a lot because I knew he knew what he was doing,” Matt Howard said. “When I heard his heart was beating again, I felt completely satisfied and proud of my brother.”

But the good news story has a sad ending. The rescued man took a turn for the worse and was pronounced dead at a Grand Rapids hospital. He was identified Wednesday as Donald Bohlsen, 81, of Holland, according to the South Haven Police Department.

Ron Wise, executive director of South Haven Area Emergency Service, said Bohlsen and his friend were preparing to go out fishing when Bohlsen tried to get into a boat, but fell into the water as the boat pushed away from the dock.

Wise lauded the boys' efforts in rescuing and reviving the man.

“He was breathing, opening his eyes and following commands. That was a true life save,” Wise said. “What the boys did was wonderful. It speaks a lot to today's youth.

“We're in a society where people don't want to get involved. And to see these kids do this ... I was very impressed.”