MANATEE COUNTY, Fla. (WFLA) — Manatee County deputies responded to a cry for help in the woods in Bradenton last month to find a man who had been trapped in the creek for two days.
When deputies located the man, his extremities were so saturated with water, skin was coming off and he was suffering from hypothermia.
“The guy was in pretty bad shape. He was freezing, he was starving, he was literally shaking everywhere he was so cold,” said Deputy Brittany Carannante.
The sheriff’s office was called to Mike’s Mini Mart around 1:30 a.m. three weeks ago for reports of a person yelling for help in the woods on the other side of the road. When Deputy Dwight Roberts went searching, he found a man sitting in about two feet of water under a railroad bridge.
The man was unable to move, claiming he had been stuck in the creek for two days calling for help. He said he was trying to bathe in the creek but was unable to get himself back up due to a leg injury. The sheriff’s office said he was homeless.
After a call to EMS, the responding deputies were able to lift him out of the water and onto land. Because of the terrain and remoteness of the area, EMS was unable to get a stretcher to him, so five deputies had to use a blanket to carry him about 250 yards down the railroad tracks to the ambulance.
“I knew we couldn’t walk him up, we couldn’t assist him. We tried even standing him up in the water but he couldn’t stand… So I felt at that moment, let’s just get him out of the water and throw him on these shoulders and carry him up,” said Deputy Dwight Roberts.
Manatee County Sheriff Rick Wells says the man is doing much better.
“It just made me proud of everything that they did to help this man. It just kind of shows all of us what they go through each and every day,” said Sheriff Wells.
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