ADDISON, Ill., May 12 (UPI) -- An Illinois paramedic says instinct kicked in when he encountered a frantic woman who had pulled her unconscious baby from a local river he was fishing on.
"I knew I had to try to help," Joel "Jay" Arnier of Addison said.
On Tuesday, he and his fishing partner sped their boat to shore on the Fox River so Arnier could grab the child from the screaming mother. "I told her, 'I'm a paramedic, let me try to help you.'"
Trisha Schuler, 39, quickly handed over little Kaitlyn to Arnier, who began resuscitation efforts, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.
Schuler told authorities her three children managed to let themselves into their riverfront back yard while she went upstairs briefly, and when she ran out to find them, she found two children on the river bank and her 1-year-old daughter in the water, the Chicago Tribune reported.
Arnier, 53, immediately began administering infant CPR, and after a few minutes the baby spit up water and coughed, he said.
"She cried a little bit, not a lot, and then I knew she was awake and alert to at least be afraid of her situation," Arnier, a paramedic for 20 years, said.
The child was transported to a hospital where she was said to be in stable condition.
