Woman Pulls Man from Chicago Lake; Starts CPR

Aug. 13--Rebekah Tucker was enjoying a barbecue on a Rogers Park beach on her last night in town and decided to dip her toes in the lake one more time when she saw a man struggling in the water.

"The man was turning blue with no pulse," the 30-year-old massage therapist said. "He wasn't responding and I just started CPR."

With help from Emily Rogers, who was passing by, Tucker said they finally noticed a pulse just as an ambulance arrived Sunday evening. Tucker, certified in CPR just a week and a half ago, guessed the man had been without a pulse for about two minutes.

"My instincts kicked in and I just did what I could," Tucker said.

Added Rogers, 24: "There's really no time, you're working toward resuscitating a human. In my brain I was thinking we have to wake him up -- not, he's not going to wake up."

The man, Jorge Pedroso, 60, of Chicago, was taken in critical condition to St. Francis Hospital, according to police, who said he either had suffered a "massive stroke" or was under the water a long time. He was reported in serious condition this morning.

Maria Mercado, who had lived with the victim for the last six years, talked to him this afternoon and said he is being moved from intensive care into a regular room. Doctors want to know more about his condition, she said, including why he became unconscious in the water. They will also check his heart.

"They said he can't be discharged today, his lungs are not clear and he's wheezing," Mercado said. "I want to thank them all for helping him."

Mercado, who said Pedroso had been enjoying the beach with a friend for several hours, said her boyfriend, wearing short and gym shoes, remembers going into the water Sunday evening but little else. "He recalls going in the water but he feels that he bumped his head on a rock or something," she said. "He has a lump on his head."

His friend saw him "bobbing up and down" in the water, but then the next time he glanced over he was gone. Told that he was revived by two women passing by, "Right away, he smiled," Mercado said. "He's a grateful person, he wanted to give them special thanks."

Tucker lives in Houston, Texas but was in town to visit relatives. She had gone to the beach near Greenleaf Avenue in Rogers Park for her family's annual get-together and was about to leave around 7:45 p.m.

"My friend and I decided to dip our feet in the water for a minute when we saw a man pulling his friend out of the water," Tucker said. "He was slapping him and the man was turning blue with no pulse and his eyes were completely dilated.

"If there's anything I've learned about vital signs and anatomy, it's what a human body looks like alive and dead," she said. "There was no pulse. He wasn't moving, period."

Tucker said a large crowd began gathering -- and one person was even taking video -- when Rogers offered to help her.

"She saw me doing CPR and she assisted me, she was helping me count out loud during the compressions," said Tucker, whose older sister called 911. "She helped me concentrate. I couldn't have done it without her."

Rogers said she was certified in infant CPR two years ago for a nanny position, but she's never tried it on anyone.

"I put my bags down and I could see someone was starting the compressions," Rogers said. "He was turning blue. I lifted his head and there was a girl doing the compressions. We counted and I helped her. She was getting tired, it was one of those things where she needed support."

The sand made it more challenging to get the man's head adjusted to the correct position -- a straight line from the mouth to the nose. "It was hard to get the right angle," Rogers said.

"People were freaking out" around them, Rogers said, but she tried to remain positive.

She said it was "terrifying" when they realized the man had no heartbeat. "There's not many times when you're holding someone's head and they don't have a heartbeat," she said.

Rogers, an actress, said she was surprised she remembered how to do CPR. "It's crazy how much that information sticks," she said.

Rogers said she was "shaken up" afterward and went into a "heaving sob."

Tucker said she barely got any sleep overnight. "It kept me up all night long because his face was haunting me ... He was dead."

Tucker said she got certified in CPR on Aug. 3 as part of her training as a massage therapist. She works for a doctor in Houston but grew up in Chicago. "It was really my last day in Chicago. That's how my vacation ended.

"I thought I got to do something. . .so I just went at it. I just thought what if it was my family, what if it was somebody that I cared about," she said. "I hope that somebody would be around to do the same for me."

rsobol@tribune.com

Twitter: @RosemarySobol1

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