Teen snaps into action, helps save bleeding man

BOSTON (WHDH) - A teenager is being credited with helping save a man from sinking into the Charles River Friday night.

After a father-son trip to a Celtics game Friday night, 18-year-old Finn Conner of Swampscott, said he and his dad were walking back to their car in Charlestown when he heard someone yelling. He saw two people in the water, with one man was bleeding and sinking while the other man was trying to get him out.

“I sort of waded out to them, they were maybe 5 or 10 feet off shore – and once I got out there I sort of grabbed his arm to support him from behind, and just sort of picked him up towards the shore,” Conner said.

According to his father, it took next to no time for Finn to snap into action.

“I didn’t hear the scream – I just turned and Finn sort of looked at me funny and started running,” said Finn’s father, Ryan Conner.

With the help of the other man who had shouted for assistance, both were able to bring the victim ashore: bleeding, but still alive.

“I was still a little bit scared because he was still, he was breathing the whole time that I was with him, but you could hear the water in his lungs,” he said.

Conner described how by the time he helped get the man to shore, medics were able to take over and rush the man to the hospital.

The man is going to be okay, according to Conner. When the man’s family reached out to thank the teen, they offered to give him a new pair of sneakers to make up for the pair he ruined when he jumped into the water.

“Some stranger’s mother is super happy Finn has the help people instinct,” Ryan Conner said in a Facebook post after the rescue. “Finn has some pretty proud parents today.”

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