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Show vo men save teen "from Murdock Canal Two Pleasant Grove men are Ld heroes today after they ? unconscious 16-year-old J from the Murdock Canal ; ,aien were lauded by Pleasant C, Ambulance personnel and x tL for their heroic efforts in h :t! the life of Wade Walker, son tEndSherry Walker, Pleas- " E' fording to Jim, he had ioeging northbound on the iSJoadandwhenhenearedthe njoNorth intersection he stepped & to make room for Gail who approaching him from the i After Gail had gone past, Jim ' jjticedagunandahuntingveston Imundnexttothecementsides jl canal. Upon looking further ; fcw a dog in the water, which is ! turbulent at that spot. Jim was finally able to get the idto move over to the side of the aiel where the animal was able to , better. He tried to get the dog igounder the bridge to the other oiewhere the water was calmer so iiathecould try to help the dog out. When Jim got to the other ride of the bridge, he saw the youth's body, floating face-down-iird, in the canal. He looked for someway of jilting the boy from the canal but mid not. He thought at this time that the youth was probably dead. He yelled for Gail to come back. The mossy sides of the canal would not provide a foothold for fan and they knew it would be (oily for them to just jump into the canal and try to wrestle the boy's body around. Jim ran alongside the body to hepitin sight in case it sank in the rater. All the time he was looking lr someway of getting the boy from it water.- '- ' ' ' - ------ About 200 yards from the V.. : - 1100 North bridge, they found some metal steps in the side of the canal. They knew this was their only chance to get Wade out, so Jim went down into the cold water, holding to the metal steps. Gail positioned himself on the steps which were out of the water. As Wade came by, Jim grabbed his shirt and, hooking his arm under Wade's, hoisted the boy up on the side of the canal where Gail held him while Jim climbed up on the bank. Then they pulled the boy, feet first, from the water. The boy was blue and showed no signs of life. After clearing his mouth of foreign matter, Jim began mouth-to-mouth rescusitation which he had learned years ago as a Boy Scout and in the Navy. He said that after about the third breath he gave the youth, Wade moaned. "As soon as I heard that small moan, I knew he had a chance." Jim continued with the mouth-to-mouth rescusitation and finally felt the boy's heart racing. In the meantime, Jim's wife, Alice, and daughter, Elizabeth, who were walking down the canal behind him, saw the men doing something near the canal and hurried hur-ried down. They went for help and called the ambulance from a nearby home. Jim expressed appreciation to the rescue team for their quick response and to the residents of the area who came to offer help. He was also extremely grateful grate-ful to Gail because he said he may not have been able to get Wade from the water without Gail's assistance. assis-tance. Wade was taken by ambulance ambu-lance to American Fork Hospital where he was held for observation although he seemed to be in good condition after his ordeal. Wade told police that he had been going hunting when his dog jumped into the canal and could not get out. He removed his hunting vest and leaned over to pull his dog from the water when he slipped and fell into the water. No one was sure how long the boy had been in the water. Incidentally, once the dog was on the north side of the bridge and out of the turbulence, he was able to scramble out of the canal. Some boys later tried to take the dog to his home but the dog would not go with them until a police officer gave them Wade's vest and then the dog went with them. Jim and Gail both said they had not had any experiences like this in their entire life. Jim is a faculty member at UVCC in electronics technology and Gail works in Salt Lake City. Alice Barnes credits the rescue res-cue with timing. She said that they started out walking along the canal, ca-nal, when Jim decided to jog and went on ahead of them. In addition, Gail usually does not jog at that time, but later when it is cooler. He was jogging earlier because he had something to do later in the evening. Both joggers were within calling distance of each other at the time the body was spotted. When Jim returned Monday to the spot where they rescued the boy, he threw a stick into the water at the bridge to see how long it took it to float to the spot where they pulled Wade out of the water. It took two minutes for the stick to reach that point. Both men surmised that the youth had been sucked under the water because of the turbulence and current and may have been under some time before his body came to the surface and begati floating down the canal. ' s - - z r ..." i i c- . " mim'",'T" 'i.t'-fut . 4 f .... .j, i' ,. :-v.. . -)" .nr i.r'' "'qaowws Jim Barnes, left, and Gail Christiansen look over spot where thev pulled Wade Walker from 'he canal Sunday evening. |
