The old man tried to climb the shore with the stems, but he could not make it. His lower body was in the water, he was tired and shaking a lot, so he could barely pronounce his name.
This was said by Dusko Dimic, a police officer from Banja Luka who saved the life of 83-year-old V.K. with his heroic act together with his colleague Ognjen Marjanovic.
An unfortunate man accidentally fell into the Crkvena River in the Banja Luka settlement of Laus while walking.
It all occurred on Saturday around 10.45 a.m., when passers-by reported to the police that an elderly man found himself in the riverbed.
According to the report, the old man fell into the water, which was not so deep, but due to the steep and slippery concrete riverbed, the man could not get out and had to call for help.
When the police officers went out on the field, they noticed that the exhausted, frozen, and scared older man was holding on to a stem so that he would not drown.
Police officer Dimic then decided not to wait for the firefighters, who were already contacted, but to react immediately.
Fearing that the old man, who was already running out of strength, would drown by the time the firefighters arrived, the brave policeman came down into the riverbed and embraced him with his arms.
“My work colleague Ognjen Marjanovic, who was on the shore, found a wooden pallet, which he lowered into the riverbed so I could reach it. I leaned it in with one part into the river, and the other part was on that steep slope, so I wrapped it around my waist to be able to raise my face above the water level. I held him by being behind him, and he was leaning on my legs until the firefighters arrived,” told the brave policeman Dimic.
According to him, when the firefighters came, one of them went down the riverbed and they slung the ladder. After that, with the help of a rope, they pulled the man out of the riverbed.
The Emergency Medical Service of Banja Luka was immediately informed about everything, which provided medical assistance to this man who had hypothermia and transported him to the University Clinical Center (UCC) of Republika Srpska (RS), where he was taken care of.
The unfortunate man, while talking to the police, said that he was a resident of the mentioned settlement who was just walking that morning and accidentally slipped and fell into the Crkvena river, Nezavisne writes.
