John Wojcik helped to save a girl from drowning, Harrison, New Jersey, October 11, 1997. Attempting suicide, a 15-year-old girl jumped from a bridge into the Passaic River and was carried downstream by the current. Wojcik, 29, laborer, who was fishing from the bank of the river, saw her struggling in the water. He immediately removed his outer attire, then entered the river at the bridge and swam with the current to her. Securing a hold on her, Wojcik towed the girl against the current back toward the bridge, to the end of a bridge pier. Clinging to its side, he held the girl against the pier. Arriving firefighters positioned a ladder into the water from atop the pier and aided Wojcik in removing the girl from the river. She was then lifted to the bridge deck and taken to the hospital for treatment. Wojcik was treated at the scene for hypothermia, and he suffered ill effect from having ingested river water, but he recovered.
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