Strangers Heroically Save Woman From Submerged Vehicle Following Seizure
By Mike-Ross
On a typical morning of February 23, Shawn Turner and his children were heading home on Military Trail. But everything took a dramatic turn when his 9-year-old son, Timmy, exclaimed from the backseat that a car was floating in the adjacent canal of Boca Raton. Without hesitation, Shawn pulled over and rushed out of his car, only to discover a sinking vehicle with a woman trapped inside. Acting quickly, the 33-year-old father removed his sweatpants and plunged into the water.
Upon swimming to the vehicle's window, Shawn confirmed the unconsciousness of the woman, later identified as Molly Pedrone, who remained strapped into her white Kia Soul as it filled with water. Another woman also leaped into the canal to assist with the rescue efforts.
Shawn shouted, "She's out cold!" and reached his arm through the cracked window to roll it down fully. He then positioned himself halfway across the front seat and struggled to release Molly's seatbelt.
Just in the nick of time, a man identified as Adam Gunn also dove into the water and rapidly swam towards the driver's side window as the car neared full submersion. With Molly's life hanging in the balance, Shawn managed to climb inside the vehicle to free her.
“I was in go mode,” Shawn recalled of the heartstopping moment. “I didn’t know what was going to happen, or how fast it would happen. I just reacted. . . . Somebody had to act.”
Shawn lifted Molly out of her seat so that Adam could pull her through the driver’s side window.
Because of his weight, the car started sinking faster. His 14-year-old son, who was filming the rescue, yelled in panic, “Dad, jump out! Get out!”
Just as the car’s entire front was underwater, Shawn’s head emerged from the surface. He, the woman, and Adam carried Molly to the shore. As they were bringing her to the bank, Molly opened her eyes, looking disoriented.
“I told her to relax, that she was in an accident and that her car went into the water,” Shawn said.
However, Molly had no recollection of the whole rescue, it was when she got in the hospital that she understood everything that had happened.
The 34-year-old was driving home from a work meeting that Sunday thinking about doing some chores when she suddenly when she suffered from a seizure. The attack rendered her unconscious, and that’s when her car came crashing into the canal.
Molly started having seizures 13 years ago, but the doctors she consulted never identified what caused it. She has had seven in total and started treating it with medication after the last one knocked her out two years ago.
The drug helped her manage the seizures, but its cost took a toll on her finances. Even with insurance, the medicine cost her $500 a month.
She couldn’t get help from her neurologist to find a more affordable alternative, so she weaned herself off – then came the accident.
Molly said that her recent episode was unlike anything she ever had.
“Usually I’ll have a warning before I have a seizure,” she said.
“Usually I have enough sense to talk myself through it and go, ‘OK, it’s coming, try and lie down, try and let somebody know.’ But there was no warning. It was just lights out, like somebody just shut the switch off.”
Her memory of the rescue picks back up as she was sitting in the grass along the canal.
“Next thing I know I’m in the water sitting on the bank and someone is asking me if I recognize the picture she was holding,” Molly told CNN. “It was my husband’s senior picture, his parents had given it to us not long ago, but I couldn’t understand why she had it.”
Molly says she is lucky that her injuries were only a few bruises and a black eye, possibly from hitting the steering wheel. The doctors gave her a new seizure medication – one that is cheaper.
Molly and Shawn met on Tuesday, and she says she couldn’t thank him enough and everyone involved in the for what they did for her.
“It was nice to meet him and thank him, because I wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for him,” Molly said. “He and Adam are the ones that jumped in and saved me, and they deserve all the praise in the world as far as I’m concerned.”
Watch the video below to witness the dramatic rescue.
The heroic actions of these compassionate strangers prevented the situation from becoming much worse. As Molly herself acknowledged, these individuals deserve all the praise for their immense bravery!
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