During an early morning jog along Lake Michigan with his wife and children Tuesday, John Corba spotted a man struggling in the water nearly 30 yards from the shore.
“This guy was about to go under,” said Corba, 43, who lived nearby. “He had taken in a lot of water.”
Corba and two other joggers quickly jumped into action while a woman called 911, an instinctual team rescue that fire officials said was crucial in saving the man’s life.
Fire Chief Juan Hernandez, a spokesman for the Chicago Fire Department, said that if the runners had not reacted quickly, “we would have been diving for a body.”
Corba said he first spotted the man near the North Avenue Beach about 7:45 a.m. Tuesday. He initially thought the man might be snorkeling but then noticed he was fully clothed and struggling.
“Someone jumped in to get him because this guy was about to go under,” Corba said. “I had just passed a stand-up paddle board rental and went to get one.”
Cat Davis, 18, said she was sweeping outside Chicago SUP, a paddle board rental company, when Corba arrived.
“He was saying a man was drowning by the breakwall and he needed a board,” Davis said. “I said, ‘Just take it.’ “
Corba did. When he got back to the water, two others had already jumped into the water to help. Corba quickly began paddling out to the struggling man, and all three propped the man on the board and brought him to safety.
Godfred Hansen-Nord, 28, was the one who initially jumped in to save the man. He lives in New York City but was visiting Chicago for work.
Hansen-Nord said he called out to see if the man needed help but got no response. “At the time when I jumped in, his head was about to go underwater,” Hansen-Nord said. “He was done, basically.”
Corba said the rescuers “were all three spokes in a wheel. We got him to safety while a woman onshore made sure to call 911. It really was a great team effort.”
The man, 40, was low on energy and was spitting up water when he got close to shore, Corba said. The three men rubbed the man’s joints to keep up his circulation, and one man spoke to him in Spanish to keep him from fading until paramedics arrived.
Fire Department divers pulled everyone to safety and took the man to Northwestern Memorial Hospital in fair to good condition. The joggers were not injured, Hernandez said.
It was not clear why the man was in the water.
“This was quick thinking by these runners,” Hernandez said. “It was a good incident.”
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Davis said she had never seen such exciting events play out by the beach.
“It was a pretty crazy morning,” she said. “Usually nothing happens down there and I am tanning.”
The rental company’s paddle boards have been used in rescues before, according to Ian Jacobson, owner of Chicago SUP, who said he has had to help people who have jumped into the water near North Avenue.
“It’s a lot easier to put someone onto a paddle board,” Jacobson said.