Woman Details How She Sprung Into Action To Save Man In Lake Overholser

A man is counting his lucky stars after finding himself in the middle of Lake Overholser after his Sea-Doo started sinking.

Luckily for him, a bystander stepped in to help.

Cheryl Tobin tells News 9 she was walking her dogs along the lake when she suddenly heard someone scream. When she looked out into the water, she spotted Kevin Anderson.

"I just didn’t know if he was going to make it at that time," Tobin said. "He was so cold and could hardly talk."

Anderson is a mechanic in the metro. Part of his job is to take Sea-Doo's on test runs on Lake Overholser. What began as any other ride became a dangerous one.

"The sea-doo took on water," Anderson said. "It died and took on water and it started sinking and I basically had to go in and fall in."

Anderson said he’s dealt with a situation like this before, but never when the water was this cold. He was not close to shore, either.

"My arms and hands went numb," Anderson said. "My legs went numb, and I basically couldn’t feel it, and then I heard somebody calling and encouraging me to swim."

That person was Tobin. She noticed him and quickly rushed over to help.

"Grabbing him by his arms and pulling him out of the water into the rocks," Tobin said. "I thought I could have only done that with an adrenaline rush."

"I couldn’t stand. I couldn’t move," Anderson said. "She got down there laid her jacket over me, started rubbing my face."

Firefighters and EMSA quickly arrived on scene to make sure Anderson was OK.

"Telling him, ‘Just hang in there,’" Tobin said. "’We’re going to get you warm to a hospital. You made it. You made it.’"

"She was my guardian angel for sure," Anderson said.

Luckily, Anderson suffered no injuries. He was out of the hospital later in the day.