Did you know back on June 24 1958 that Chester “Chet” Chagnon and Herbert “Herbie” Hathaway saved the life of a 11 year old Boy who was drowning in Lake Champlain. (Herbie is on the left and Chet is on the right).
To learn more about Chet
Read the article:
Two city employees were credited with saving the life of an 11 year old boy yesterday after the lad fell into the chilly waters of Lake Champlain.
The boy, David Streeter of 23 St. Louis St., slipped from a cross brace on the pier behind the Municipal Generating Station.
He was pulled unconscious from the current swept lake bottom by Water Dept employee Herbert Hathaway, 522 St. Paul St.
Hathaway located the boy in 14 feet of water on his second surface dive.
Artificial respiration performed on the scene by Chester Chagnon, 64 Morgan St., was credited with saving the boy’s life.
Chagnon also works for the Water Department.
The boy, who had been fishing off the pier, fell into the water at 12:04pm Worker on the scene said he was taken out at 12:08 and was submerged most of the four minutes he was in the lake.
A doctor at the DeGoesbriand Memorial Hospital said the boy would be detained at the hospital for two days for observation.
Officials explained the mixture of water, oil and sand in his lungs could result in complications.
“Dust Dove In”
Hathaway came on the scene just after the boy was seen falling into the lake.
“I just pulled my shoes and pants off and dove in,” he explained. “It was the only thing to do.”
Hathaway failed to locate the boy on the first dive.
Streeter had been carried from beneath the cross brace, down the discharge canal and under a footbridge by the current.
Resurfacing just long enough to get another breath of air, Hathaway went down again, this time spotting Streeter, unconscious, on the bottom.
Grabbing the boy, he surfaced quickly and handed the boy up to the men waiting on the pier. “I thought he was dead,” Hathaway said.
Chagnon said the lad’s body was blue.
Works Five Minutes
Chagnon applied artificial respiration for five minutes until the police ambulance arrived to take the boy to the hospital.
He was given oxygen at the hospital, but doctors maintained it was the artificial respiration that saved his life.
It wasn’t until later that Hathaway and Chagnon found the boy they had saved was the son of a fellow city employee-Street Department worker Maurice C Streeter.
“We know him very well,” Hathaway said. “We were surprised to find out it was his kid.”
Hathaway was not treated for possible ill affects fowling his dive, but complained of a headache afterwards.
Both he and Chagnon continued on the job after the incident.
A third man, Maurice Normandeau, Montpelier, was also credited with administering artificial respiration to the boy.
