Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - Video Shows Dramatic Rescue of Woman Who Had Seizure, Drove Into Pond: 'Hurry!'

Episode Date: August 24, 2024

A police body-worn camera and dash cam recorded the dramatic rescue of a woman who suffered a seizure in West Orange, Texas and drove into a pond with her children. The woman’s 12-year-old son ran to a police cruiser for help. West Orange Police Officer Chuck Cobb sprang into action with the help of two men passing by to pull the woman from the water. Law&Crime’s Angenette Levy has the video and talks with Cobb about the rescue in this episode of Crime Fix — a daily show covering the biggest stories in crime.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW: Host:Angenette Levy  https://twitter.com/Angenette5CRIME FIX PRODUCTION:Head of Social Media, YouTube - Bobby SzokeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinVideo Editing - Daniel CamachoGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this law and crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. What's going on? She's having a fever. She's sunk. She's in the water. A child runs for help after his mother has a seizure and their car ends up in a pond. Look out, bud. Look out. ends up in a pond. It's all caught on body camera and I talked to the officer who sprang into action to save that woman's life. God just put me in the right place at the right time. Welcome to Crime Fix. I'm Anjanette Levy. Chuck Cobb has been a police officer for more than 25

years. So as you can imagine, he's seen a lot in that time. But on July 24th, he didn't expect to see a young boy running up to his cruiser. Chuck Cobb is a police officer in West Orange, Texas, and he hurried. He drove down to the pond with that boy. I've got a car in the water right here on the south side of the overpass on 87. There's somebody in it. Come on. Is she in there? Is somebody in there? Officer Cobb went into the water to save the woman. Look out, buddy.

Look out. Is the car unlocked? Cobb couldn't get that door open, and he's going to tell you why in just a little bit. Look in the driver door in the panel. There's a little, little blue or black punch in the driver door in the panel, there's a little blue or black punch in the driver door. Look in the driver door in the panel. I got a window punch. The driver door. Things were slowed down a little bit. Cobb had to get out of the water to go get that punch to break the window. Here, I got a punch. Here. Officer Cobb's body-worn camera went underwater as he tried to break those windows to get the mother out of the car, but by that time, the car had sunk even farther underwater.

Luckily, there were people passing by who saw that something awful was happening, and they also stopped to help. Eventually, one of the men pulls the woman out of the car. She'd been underwater for a while. Get her up here. Get her up on hard, girl. I don't know about you, but I think this video is incredible. Sadly, that woman, when she was pulled out of the water, she was unconscious. She wasn't breathing and she did not have a pulse. Chuck Cobb worked with two men to get the woman

out of the water. The camera from Cobb's cruiser shows an angle of the woman being pulled to dry land. Cobb performed chest compressions as the woman's children stood by and another police officer arrived and then EMTs. The video of this rescue has gone viral and Chuck Cobb was recently honored by the city of West Orange for his heroism. The city gave him a letter of commendation and a life-saving award. The letter reads in part, Officer Cobb's quick response, recognition of the emergency, and immediate actions and effective life-saving measures resulted directly in saving the life of John Keta Wynbush. A failure to act could have led to a tragic outcome.

And joining me is Officer Chuck Cobb of the West Orange Police Department. Officer Cobb, how are you doing with all of this attention, first of all, that you're getting over this rescue? I'm about to have enough of the attention. Well, you deserve the attention. You deserve the accolades. Take me back to that day. I mean, what do you think as this boy comes running up to your vehicle, to your cruiser, and he's out of breath, he's winded, and saying, look, my mom is in the pond. Yeah. When I saw a small child run down the middle of the highway, I mean, I knew something was going on.

And when I pulled up, he was panic stricken. When he said that his mom was in the water, she had had a seizure. Immediately put him in my patrol unit and headed down there and got in the water and tried to do what I could. You did go right to the water and we see you go in there and, you know, we've seen these stories over the years where you can't, you can't get a door open. That's how people die in these incidents when their cars become submerged, because just something happens with the physics of it all and you can't get the door open. So you went back to try to get something to break the window and then somebody else, a bystander shows up and is there to assist as well.

Yeah. So I had a window punch in my patrol unit. Once I realized that all the doors were locked, I went and got the window punch. By the time I got back in the water, one of the passerby, Eppie Manguia, he had got in. So we were able to bust the rear window on the passenger side. And whenever I went around the driver's side, another passerby had got in and were able to get the windows punched out. And between all three of us, the guy that was on the driver's side, he actually got a hand in to her and was able to get her out. And we were able to get her on the bank. Tell me about how the child's mother was doing when you guys got her out of the vehicle. I mean, was she, um, almost drowning?

Um, because she did have a seizure, but that doesn't mean that she wasn't still, still able to breathe or that she wasn't conscious at some level. Yeah, she had pretty much already drowned. Uh, she was completely lifeless, no pulse, no breath. Uh, so as soon as we got her on the bank, I started chest compressions. When we would look back at the video, it was almost a full three minutes of chest compressions before she finally took a gasp and we were able to get her breathing on her own again and just stayed there until the ambulance arrived. That is really terrifying. So was the boy, I mean, did it take the boy some time

to actually get himself out of the vehicle once the car had gone into the water? He was helped by his sister. A lot of the media stuff, they didn't, and I didn't know the whole story until the next day when I was able to complete my crash investigation. They were at a stop sign. The mother started having a seizure. The daughter got out, went around to the driver's side to put it in park and help her mom, but the door was unlocked. And before the daughter could run back around, the mom's foot slipped off the brake, hit the gas. She went across the highway into the pond. The 16-year-old daughter, Breasia, was able to

help her brother get out of the back passenger door. And then the door shut and they were all locked. And that's when Breasia told her brother to run for help. And that's, he ran down the highway and that's when I saw him. Oh my goodness. That little boy had to be traumatized. I mean, but very brave to go running down, you know, your instincts catch, kick in and he's listening to what his sister is telling him to do. What are your thoughts about this child? You know, everybody has, I've gotten a ton of phone calls, you know, and all the media stuff, but I'll be honest with you. If those, that 16 year old daughter of Reja and her little brother, Dwight, had they not did what they did,

I don't think her mama would be here. Of course, the kids were upset. I've dealt with a lot of kids in my 29 years. A lot of 12-year-olds would have been so panic-stricken. I think they would have just vapor-locked. He knew that a lot of 12 year olds would have been so panic stricken. I think they would have just vapor locked, you know, but he, uh, he knew that he had to get help for his mama and he took off running and found me. Wow. Um,

and mom was doing really badly despite being rescued that evening. Um, you told me when we were talking offline yesterday that I, they were concerned she might not even make it through the night. Well, when the ambulance transported her to St. Elizabeth's in Beaumont, I ended up going up there after I got done at the scene. And the doctor, I pulled him to the side afterward and he told me, he said, I don't think she's going to make it. She was too long without oxygen. And for a couple of weeks, it looked bad. She kind of deteriorated, got pneumonia from the water in her lungs. And then she made a 180 and got better.

After three, three and a half weeks, they were able to take the vent out. And as of the other day, she is now at ICU in a regular room. Wow. Well, that's remarkable. And really, I'm glad to hear that. And I know that you've been checking on her a lot, too. Yes, ma'am. Yeah, she's an incredible young woman.

Other than her, she hasn't gained her voice back yet, I guess, from the vent being in her throat for so long. Other than that, you can't even tell that she was involved in anything. She is literally a miracle because most people would not be alive. And if they were, they would have a lot of brain damage from lack of oxygen. And she appears to be 100%. I know you're a police officer and you probably have been for a little while and you get into this business to help people. But this is one of those experiences where you can really say, I went to work and I helped somebody. This wasn't somebody being arrested or you're doing a speeding ticket or something like that. You helped save a woman's

life. Yeah. That's what me and my wife were talking about, you know, in this job a lot, I've been doing it for 29 years now. Um, a lot of people don't want your help, whether they get it or not, but, uh, it's actually very rare that we're able to have that kind of positive effect on someone's life. And it's very humbling. You know, God just put me in the right place at the right time. Because I told my wife, if a passerby had just seen it and they had to

call 911, the dispatch would have got the information and they would have dispatched to us. And however long our response time would have been, it would have been a very tragic outcome. It wouldn't have had the outcome that it had. And I know you were honored recently by the city. So what was that like? I mean, I know you said, you know, God put you in the right place. But I mean, this is I think it's a really big deal. It was, I mean, it was humbling to receive that kind of accommodation from our department and the city.

A lot of my co-workers that work the same shift with other departments in our area, they came up there. It was humbling. I'm just kind of glad it's over now, and I'm glad that she is doing as good as she's doing. And she's expected to make a full recovery. Yes, ma'am. That's what it's looking like, other than her voice right now. She sits there and whispers, but she's 100% talking, having a conversation. Well, I'm glad you were there to help her and her son and the other bystanders as well. Chuck Cobb, thank you so much.

Thank you. And that's it for this episode of Crime Fix. I'm Ann Jeanette Levy. Thanks so much for being with me. I'll see you back here next time.