A 62-year-old man died on Saturday after attempting to save his 3-year-old grandson during a family fishing excursion in one of Michigan’s Great Lakes.
James George David was aboard a 17-foot boat in the Saginaw Bay, located within Lake Huron, with his 32-year-old son and two grandsons, ages 9 and 3.
Mlive.com reports Bay County Central Dispatch received a call around 4:00 p.m. on Saturday from the 9-year-old boy alerting authorities that his younger brother had fallen into the water.
WSGW reports the father said a large wake formed after a boat passed behind their vessel that knocked the 3-year-old boy, wearing a life jacket, into the water.
At that point, the father and grandfather, who were not wearing life jackets, immediately jumped into the lake to rescue the child but struggled to stay afloat and were ultimately separated by the rough waters from 150 to 500 yards.
With emergency responders en route and David and his son trying to rescue the boy, the 9-year-old cried for help from a passing boat.
The boat’s occupants, a father and son duo, pulled the 3-year-old boy and his father out of the water and were able to tie a rope to David, who was unconscious.
Bay County Sheriff Troy R. Cunningham called the second boat’s occupants “good Samaritans” for preventing David from sinking.
David’s son reported his father had swallowed a lot of water while unconscious.
Bay County authorities and the U.S. Coast Guard arrived on the scene and pulled David from the water, where they began performing CPR on him.
Authorities transported David to McLaren Bay Region hospital by ambulance, where staff would later pronounce him deceased.