Former Oregon State rower Henry Hebson returns to the Corvallis campus next week to finish his senior year.
The Chicago native is also bringing back a pretty good story from summer vacation.
Hebson, who rowed for the Beavers as a freshman and junior, recently found himself in Chicago’s news as part of a feel-good tale. Hebson may have saved a man’s life by pulling him from an SUV that was sinking in a lake.
“I don’t really feel like a hero,” Hebson said by phone. “Everyone is saying that I am, but I’m like, anyone would have done that. You have to do that.”
On Tuesday, Aug. 27, Hebson left his catering job in Northfield, a suburb north of Chicago, to pick up his cousins Louie and Jackson from high school. Hebson drove north on Waukegan Rd., when an SUV going southbound drove past them, swerved and left the road. The SUV went over a hill and flew into a pond located at Medline Industries, a medical equipment manufacturer.
What the? Hebson remembers thinking.
Hebson pulled to the side of the road, got out of his car and saw the SUV floating in the lake. Hebson said he told his cousins to call 911, then ran across a bridge toward the lake. He took off his shoes, socks and t-shirt and jumped into the water.
Hebson saw the man slumped over, his hands gripping the wheel. Hebson was later told the man had a seizure, and lost control of his vehicle.
With the vehicle floating away toward the middle of the lake, Hebson said he grabbed the door handle and tried dragging it toward the shore. But there was another problem: the doors were locked and the man appeared unresponsive.
A bystander joined Hebson in the rescue, throwing him a rock about the size of a softball. Hebson tried banging the rock on the window behind the driver’s door, with no luck. So he moved a few paces back of the car and hurled the rock through the window, shattering the glass.
“At that point, my adrenaline was through the roof,” Hebson said.
Hebson was able to unlock the back door, but was then confronted with another challenge in opening the door. The weight of the water made it difficult, but eventually Hebson was able to pry it open. He crawled into the back seat, now full of glass.
“I got a couple of nice cuts,” he said.
With the door now open, water was quickly rushing inside the SUV. Hebson says the water level was just below the man’s chest when he worked himself into the front passenger seat. Hebson unbuckled his seat belt, but said the man was still going through a seizure. It was all Hebson could do to pull his hands from the steering wheel.
By this time, two bystanders got into the water to assist Hebson in pulling the man from the SUV. They were able to get him up to the shore, where they sat him up against a rock.
Soon thereafter, emergency personnel arrived at the scene, and the man began to respond. He was taken to a local hospital for treatment.
A few days later, Hebson said he heard from the man’s son, who thanked him and said his father was doing well. The Oregonian/OregonLive reached out to Northfield fire chief Michael Nystrand for an update the man’s condition, but he did not respond.
The next few days after the rescue were a whirlwind for Hebson. Local friends and those as far away from Oregon State reached out to congratulate him. Hebson said he heard rescue incident can be jarring for the Good Samaritan, but “I never really felt it. Next day, I went to work.”
That’s not to say emotion didn’t get the best of Hebson. He recalls driving from the rescue scene to take his cousins home as moving.
“Definitely had to cool off,” Hebson said. “After I dropped them off, I thought, ‘Oh my God.’ It was definitely heavy, but it seemed like the right thing to do.”
Hebson landed at Oregon State by chance. He planned to attend Gonzaga after high school, but while on the West coast for college visits, Hebson took a look at Oregon State and fell for Corvallis. Hebson, who will graduate in liberal studies next spring, decided to give up rowing after competing for the Beavers’ varsity and junior varsity boats during the 2018-19 season.
