Saved from death in freezing canal (From Worcester News)

Saved from death in freezing canal

9:35am Tuesday 7th February 2012 in News Exclusive By Richard Vernalls, @rvernallsWN #worcsnews

LUCKY: Scott Goodman (06462104) Buy this photo »

A MAN who plunged head first into an icy canal has thanked the man who fished him out for saving his life.

Scott Goodman was walking along the towpath in Worcester city centre when he tripped over a mooring post, smashing his head on the canal path wall as he fell, half-stunned, into the freezing water.

The 32-year-old was spotted splashing for the edge by a passer-by, but that man was unable to drag him out alone.

But luckily 6ft 4in Phil Bull was also passing and ran to help pull Mr Goodman clear.

Paramedics later rushed Mr Goodman to hospital, where his heart stopped twice.

Mr Goodman says he would be dead if Mr Bull and the other man had not helped.

The other man who helped pull Mr Goodman out had to rush off “or he would be late for his train”, said Mr Bull.

So the 30-year-old was left look after the dazed, shivering and bleeding Mr Bull until the medics arrived at the canal near Pizza Hut, Tallow Hill, at 4.30pm on Friday, January 3.

By good fortune, Mr Goodman was taking a bag of clothes to his new house, and they had fallen on the towpath.

“I managed to strip off his jackets and T-shirts and dress him in what was in the bags,” said Mr Bull.

“He was stuttering and weeping a bit when I pulled him out, but when the cold set in he quietened down a lot.

"I think he was going in and out of consciousness, he was in bad shape and his face was covered in blood from the gash on his head.

"He couldn’t even stand up on his own, and when he did he fell into a tree at the canalside and hit his head again.”

The paramedics then arrived, leaving Mr Bull to walk home to Merriman’s Hill.

He said: “I had to explain to the missus why I was soaking wet and covered in another man’s blood.

"I called a mate on the way home because the whole thing was surreal.”

Mr Goodman, of Diglis, Worcester, says he remembers the “shock” of falling in then “waking up in hospital at 9.30pm, plugged into machines”.

“It’s lucky he came past and fished me out because he saved my life.

"I owe him because me and my dad hadn’t spoken in 14 months, and then he turned up at hospital to fetch me so we’re talking again now.”

A West Midlands Ambulance Service spokesman said they took a man to Worcestershire Royal Hospital suffering from cold and with a head injury.