ST. JOHNS COUNTY, Fla. – He was at the right place at the right time.
A man from St. Johns County found himself in an unusual situation on Tuesday when he happened upon someone in distress while taking his lunch break at Alpine Groves Park in St. Johns County.
Luke Cherry told News4JAX he isn’t usually at the dock during the day, but it was a good thing he decided to take a scenic break from his job at a nearby auto shop.
Cherry said he saw someone bleeding and struggling in the water and knew he had to take action.
“I realized that he was definitely in trouble,” Cherry said. “I saw that his leg was bent out of shape. I saw he was bleeding and at that point, it was obvious what I had to do next.”
Cherry said he got in the water and did what his mother taught him to do.
“I just tied my long socks about as hard as I could twice around the upper part of his leg. And at that point, I saw his bleeding significantly reduced. I tried to tie it as tight as I could. That helped them immediately. Oh, absolutely. Yeah, he was gushing blood.”
Once he got him to shore, Cherry said he lost track of where the man went. He said he had to go back to work soaking wet.
News4JAX wanted to find some answers for Cherry. All it took was a visit to St. Johns County Fire and Rescue.
Chris Naff, from the SJCFR, reported that when the fire and rescue team arrived, the man was at the water’s edge with minor injuries and was not taken to a local hospital.
That’s good news, but Naff said people need to be careful swimming there. Every year, SJCFR receives calls of someone jumping off of a dock and getting hurt, sometimes more serious than this incident.
“You really can’t see what’s underwater,” Naff said. “There could be anywhere from Coke cans... it could be debris from past storms. It could be any debris from the dock that people have thrown off. It could be some fishing line and stuff like that. So you know as you jump off into shallow water, you can hit anything underneath the water.”
Cherry told News4JAX he hopes the man is doing well.
“I did see him as I was hopping back in my car. He gave me a little thumbs up from the back of the ambulance.”