A 24-year-old man, who claimed he was adrift on Lake Michigan for about a week on a small air mattress, was recovered 17 miles off the Wilmette shore Wednesday.
Although the man`s account left many questions unanswered, U.S Coast Guard officials said they believed his dramatic story. He was listed in good condition Wednesday evening at Evanston Hospital.
The man, who described himself as a German exchange student and spoke fluent English, told rescuers he set out on the air mattress to sunbathe after drinking at a party. He said he then passed out and awoke later to find himself far from shore, Coast Guard officials said.
Wilmette paramedics who treated him said the man had been severely sunburned and was dehydrated. He was treated for exposure.
Paramedics identified the man as Dirk Steen, who said he has been living with a friend in Chicago, but no one reported him missing.
”You`re a sight for sore eyes,” Steen reportedly told paramedics who helped rescue him.
Steen was pulled out of the water Wednesday afternoon by a passing boat and returned to shore by a Coast Guard vessel from Wilmette.
Dressed in a T-shirt and cutoff jeans and carrying only a jug of water, Steen said he went out on the lake near Northwestern University after attending a party Friday in Evanston, said Petty Officer Michael Hanak of the U.S. Coast Guard Group Milwaukee, which coordinates rescue efforts from Wilmette Harbor.
Hanak said Steen ”got drunk and dashed off on a raft.”
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”He told us he was at a party in the area and that he had been lying on a raft and passed out and woke up in the middle of the lake,” said Mike Baron, boatswain mate second class and the officer on duty at the Wilmette Harbor Coast Guard Station.
Steen told paramedics that he had been on the lake for seven days, said Wilmette paramedic Al Vilches.
Asked if Steen was fortunate to survive, Vilches said, ”I`d say he`s lucky.”
Hanak said Coast Guard officials are not sure how Steen survived.
During the time he says he was adrift on the lake, water temperatures ranged between 68 and 73 degrees.
Baron said Steen also was lucky he was sighted once he was so far from shore because few craft from Chicago harbors travel in that area. Passengers aboard the boat that reported spotting him told the Coast Guard they were traveling from Milwaukee to New Buffalo, Mich. The boat continued on its journey after Steen was plucked from the water and could not be located for details.
It is not uncommon for sunbathers on flotation devices to drift away from shore.
No search had been done for Steen. It is unclear whether anyone even knew he had gone out on the lake.
He had just started as an employee at the Northwestern student bookstore and had worked only one day, July 1, according to a university spokesman.
Steen told Vilches that he had turned 24 Tuesday while out on the air mattress. He also told the paramedic that he had gone out on the lake to sunbathe, was pushed out by strong winds and was unable to reverse the direction of the air mattress, which was about 40 by 70 inches.
Steen said his water lasted for four days, Vilches said. He said he then began to drink the lake water, Vilches said. Steen said he rarely slept and survived a couple thunderstorms on the lake, capsizing four or five times, according to the story he told the paramedic.
The Coast Guard received a call from the crew of a private powerboat at about 2:50 p.m., informing them that they had located a man on a rubber raft some 17 miles off the coast of Wilmette.
Hanak said a rescue team arrived at the scene about 3:30 p.m. The team found Steen ”semiconscious, incoherent, weak and dehydrated.”