‘I don’t feel like a hero,’ says Winnipeg woman who rescued father, toddler from Red River

A Winnipeg woman says she’s still recovering, but glad everyone is safe, days after rescuing both a child who fell into the Red River and the girl’s father, who attempted to save the child.

Jayclyn Morrissette, 32, was on a walk with her neighbour at St. John’s Park, in Winnipeg’s North End, on the evening of Aug. 24.

They stopped at a bench overlooking the Red River, where she “noticed a little girl flailing in the water,” Morrissette told CBC on Wednesday.

She went down to the water as her neighbour went to the child’s parents, who were frantically searching for the toddler, she said.

“I got down to the edge when the father had jumped in, and it took about 10 seconds before I realized he was not coming back up. So I … emptied my pockets and jumped in.”

Trying to rescue the father was difficult, Morrissette said, so her neighbour grabbed her as she held onto him, and they were able to get the man out of the water.

Morrissette then swam back out to get the toddler.

In a Wednesday morning news release detailing the incident, Winnipeg police said the rescuer swam backward toward the riverbank with the unconscious child on her chest.

“When I pulled her out, she was lifeless,” Morrissette said. “As I was swimming back, I was also pumping her stomach.”

Morrissette says she and her neighbour performed CPR — which she learned over a decade ago —on the child before first responders arrived.

The girl was taken to hospital in critical condition, where she was later stabilized, police said. She is now expected to make a full recovery.

But Morrissette said she suffered nightmares in the days following the incident.

“Her eyes were open and her tongue was purple, so that’s all I could see every time I closed my eyes,” Morrissette said. “I didn’t sleep for a couple of days.”

She also says once the adrenaline wore off, she realized she had suffered injuries to her neck and shoulder. She’s been taking painkillers and is waiting to get testing, if her injuries do not get better.

Police did not release the child’s age nor the names of the people involved, but said in their news release the woman who saved the girl and her father showed “remarkable courage and selflessness” in saving people who were strangers to her, with little regard for her own safety.

“I’m just a mom,” Morrissette said. “I don’t feel like a hero.”

Someone else would have done the same thing in that situation, she said.

“I’m glad I was there. They’re lucky I was there. I wish it just never happened,” she said.

“Be safe. Watch your kids at all times. It only takes a second.”

WATCH | Child, her father rescued from river:

Winnipeg woman rescues child, father from Red River

Jayclyn Morrissette rescued a child who fell into the Red River — and the girl’s father, who jumped in after her — at St. John’s Park in Winnipeg’s North End on Aug. 24.