Stephen Ellison, British Consul General in Chongqing, saves a drowning student.
BEIJING:
A British diplomat hailed as a hero for rescuing a drowning student in southwest China over the weekend said he felt deep relief when he saw the woman resumed her breathing and that she was fine.
Stephen Ellison, the British consul general in Chongqing, had visited a scenic nearby location last Saturday when suddenly “there was a great commotion” after a student accidentally fell into the river, a- he told Reuters in a video call Wednesday.
Ellison, 61, who assumed her post in Chongqing in October, has been widely praised on Chinese social media, where dramatic videos of the rescue have become a hot item.
“It was pretty quickly clear that she was having problems. She couldn’t swim and she was submerged when she got there and she was floating on the surface of the water,” he said.
Seeing that she “was going to lose her life”, the former civil engineer said that a lifeguard training 50 years ago in Malta “clicked”.
“I took off my shoes and jumped,” he says.
“I met her fairly quickly and turned her around. But she wasn’t breathing and she was unconscious, so I really feared the worst for a few moments actually, ”Ellison added.
The people on the shore threw Ellison a lifeline and dragged the two to safety.
But for about half a minute, as they approached shore, the woman still wasn’t breathing.
“When she started to breathe again, it was just a really, really deep feeling of relief,” Ellison said.
After being sure the woman would recover, Ellison was greeted by the villagers “and looked after very well,” he said.
They washed and dried his clothes and gave him coffee before he found the woman he saved.
“She came and we met, which was very nice,” he said. “She was clearly a little shocked but she was in good shape.”
The woman, who is 24 and has not been publicly identified, invited Ellison to a meal to express her thanks, which said he would be “happy” to join.
“It’s a great story, and if people get some pleasure from it, then so much the better,” Ellison said, declining to question if his actions could improve strained relations between China and Britain.
“I don’t think it matters whether you’re a diplomat, a civil engineer, a student or whatever, that when things like that happen, then there’s a human reaction that’s pretty encouraging isn’t there? we feel we can help, and that’s the way it should be, ”he said.
(Except for the title, this story was not edited by GalacticGaming staff and is posted from a syndicated feed.)
