Last June, Houston born-and-raised camp counsellor Cori Marcotte noticed an older man panicking and wondered why.
“There was just a little boy here and now he’s gone!” said the man.
The man dove down into the zero visibility Summerside Lake in Edmonton, frantically searching the bottom of the lake. He found something and pulled it as hard as he could.
Lo and behold, it was the missing boy, now lifeless and unconscious.
The boy needed CPR immediately. Marcotte and her friend Taylor Marsh
sprung into action, after realizing no one else could do it.
They eventually managed to revive the boy, and for that, Marcotte and Marsh received Silver Medals for Bravery from the Burnaby-based Lifesaving Society at the 104th Annual Commonwealth Awards for Honour and Rescue on March 5.
“I was actually surprised, because I wasn’t expecting someone contacting me about an award, but it felt really good just knowing that you’re being recognized for doing such a great thing,” said Marcotte. Marcotte added she did not get any hints or indication she would win this award.
“I just got a call from B.C. Lifesaving Society, from a lady in Vancouver, just wondering if I would like to come to Vancouver to accept the award,” she said.
In hindsight, Marcotte said the experience was “scary”.
“It was scary to see someone pulled out of the water lifeless, but it was just a rush of adrenaline, everything was just such a blur that day,” said Marcotte.
While she has trained on mannequins before, that incident marked the first time she did CPR on a person.
“Definitely, when I was going through [first-aid] training, I thought to myself there was no way I was going to remember all of this, but it just, all at once, came back,” said Marcotte. “You just knew
what to do.”
The boy responded to Marcotte’s resuscitation by screaming, vomitting and exhibiting signs of shock, and a crowd had gathered around them, but Marcotte felt nothing but relief.
“It was really just because he was awake again,” he said.
Marcotte attended the awards ceremony in the Hotel Vancouver’s Pacific Ballroom with her parents, Reg
and Yvonne.
“It was so nice of them to be able for them to come and see me receive the award,” said Marcotte.
Her parents could not be more proud of Marcotte.
“We’re very proud of her,” said mom Yvonne. “I thought that was pretty exciting and once-in-a-lifetime.
“I think that’s awesome that you wouldn’t just let somebody else take care of it, that you would jump in and try to help."