Leo Moody was driving home from work in rural Maine when he spotted an SUV submerged in water off the side of the road, and two people (the driver and passenger) frantically pointing to a woman and infant still stuck inside.
According to the Associated Press, Moody launched into full-on hero mode, helping the woman out of the car before braving the icy water to cut the infant free from her car seat.
Moody said one of the SUV’s passengers told him her baby was in the back seat, and he swam to the vehicle and cut through seatbelts to free the child seat. He said he then took the 3-month-old to the banks of the culvert and handed the baby and seat to another passer-by, Wade Shorey of Greenbush. Shorey, 32, performed CPR on the child, resuscitating her, Moody said.
Moody said it was cold and his hands were chilled to the point where he couldn’t feel them while he was cutting the straps, and he “kept telling myself, don’t drop the knife.” He said he always carries the knife — usually for peeling an apple or whittling a piece of alder.
“They come in handy, I guess. Monday night really proved it,” Moody said.
Though the infant was unresponsive when Moody pulled her from the vehicle, after Shorey performed CPR, the child began breathing, then eventually crying.
Moody’s wife was waiting for him at home, where he arrived soaking wet and freezing.
“Just another reason why I love him — thinking of someone other than himself,” she told the AP.
Meanwhile, Shorey told NBC Portland that he wasn’t a hero.
“We are just normal people that did what needed to be done,” he said. “I am not a hero, I was…the right person at the right time.”
We beg to differ.
[h/t Washington Post, NBC Portland; img via Maine Police / AP]
