Huntley man died after saving 3-year-old son in Arlington Heights lake, wife says
A Huntley man involved in a boating accident Monday in Arlington Heights died after saving his 3-year-old son, his wife said Tuesday.
David Fournier, 44, and his son were on a paddleboat with another man and small child when it capsized Monday afternoon on Lake Terramere, authorities said.
When first responders arrived after 3:30 p.m., all the boat's occupants had been pulled to the shore by good Samaritans, who were performing CPR on Fournier, police said.
“Thank you to all our great neighbors who don't know my son and I,” Karin Sullivan Fournier wrote in a post on a Huntley community Facebook page. “My son and I lost the most amazing man in our lives but we will get through. ... David Fournier you are my soul mate and the best dad ever.”
How exactly the boat capsized as well as other details about the accident remain under investigation, said police Sgt. Andrew Blevins, who reiterated Tuesday it appears to be a “tragic accident.” No criminal activity or foul play is suspected, police said. Fournier's wife did not elaborate on the rescue of their son.
Blevins did not know if the boat's occupants were wearing life jackets.
Fournier's cause of death is still pending after an autopsy Tuesday, according to the Cook County medical examiner's office.
When paramedics got to the scene on the 4000 block of North Terramere Drive Monday afternoon, they took over care of the victim and introduced advanced life support measures. They then took him to Northwest Community Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 4:41 p.m., authorities said.
The second adult and two young children who were on the boat were evaluated at the scene and not taken to the hospital.
After the initial 911 call regarding several people in the lake, rescue dive teams responded but never had to go in the water since all the boat's occupants had been brought to shore, Blevins said.
Lake Terramere, in the middle of a residential enclave on the village's north end, is a private man-made lake surrounded by some two dozen homes and a public park.