UD hero

UD student makes dramatic rescue of mother and infant

Atypical summer Sunday turned dramatic for UD student Eric Svihovec when, during a sudden rainstorm, he rescued a mother and her 2- 1/2-month-old from drowning off a Long Island harbor.

The junior business marketing major was working inside a local fishing station on July 1st when he saw a 2000 Volkswagen convertible drive off the end of a boat ramp into Mount Sinai Harbor, about 100 feet away.

"A storm had just hit, and I was inside trying to keep dry when I saw what looked like a taillight go into the water," Svihovec said.

When he went outside to investigate, he realized that a car had driven off the ramp and was quickly sinking into the harbor.

"I ran down the dock and saw a woman banging on the car's window," he said.

Immediately, Svihovec, who has been a volunteer firefighter for the past three years, jumped into the harbor and began struggling to force the car door open.

Eventually Svihovec opened the passenger door and pulled the driver, Emily Wardell, from the sinking car.

Wardell, of Mount Sinai, was worried about her husband who had taken the family's boat out on the water earlier in the afternoon.

She had been driving to Ralph's Fishing Station, where Svihovec works, to ask for help in locating him. Somehow, she became disoriented and ended up driving her car down a boat ramp and into the harbor.

As Svihovec pulled Wardell to safety, he looked in and noticed a baby strapped into a car seat in the back of the car.

The baby was Olivia, Wardell's 2-1/2-month-old daughter.

As he watched, the infant's head went under water. Struggling to stay above water himself, he wrestled with the car seat until it broke loose, grabbed the baby and, with the help of a friend, delivered her safely to the nearby dock.

When asked if he thought being at the right place at the right time was an act of fate or just dumb luck, Svihovec does not have an answer.

"I have been asked that question several times, and I really don't know. All I know is that if I wasn't there they would have definitely been dead," he said.

–Drew Chyzus, AS 2002