A 68-year-old man remained in the driver’s seat of his car after it plunged into Newark Bay near Bayonne, New Jersey, on Nov. 10, 2020. As Joseph M. Kadian screamed that he didn’t know how to swim, Anthony Stephen Capuano, a 29-year-old aquatic program administrator, responded. Removing his prosthetic lower leg, Capuano climbed a fence, scrambled over large rocks at the water’s edge and entered the 50-degree water, swimming to the driver’s door of the car. With water up to Kadian’s waist, Capuano grasped Kadian under the arms and pulled him through the opened driver’s window, as water entered the passenger compartment, sinking the vehicle’s front end. Capuano positioned Kadian on his back and swam toward shore. By then, another man had entered the water and swam to them to assist Capuano. Other bystanders on the rock helped lift Kadian from the water. Capuano was nearly exhausted, dizzy, and cold after the rescue, but he recovered.
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