Volodymyr Zubko saved a man from drowning, Freeport, New York, September 19, 2023. A 37-year-old man remained submerged upside down and unconscious near his sport utility vehicle after it sped into a marina, crashed through a bulkhead, plunged into a canal, and began to sink in what police described as a suicide attempt. Zubko, 37, software engineer, who had arrived in the country from Ukraine four days prior, was working in a house across from the marina and heard the crash. He ran outside, saw a man’s leg sticking out of the water, and jumped into the canal. Zubko swam 80 feet to the man, grabbed both of his legs, and pulled him away from the sinking SUV. Zubko then slipped an arm under the man’s arm and swam to a dock, towing him underwater to waiting first-responders. Police pulled the man onto the dock and started CPR, but the floating dock flipped over and dumped them and the victim into the water, at which point the man, regaining consciousness, dunked his head, apparently trying to drown himself, and fought with first-responders who, eventually, pulled him onto the dock again. He was taken to a hospital and treated for injuries from the crash and swallowing water. Zubko was not injured.
2023-0000121-10548Volodymyr Zubko
Freeport, NY