Lake Forest Resident's Actions Help Save Deerfield Man

At first, Harry Polites thought the man’s engine might have been stalling.

“His car came through the intersection very slowly, just plugging along,” recounted the Lake Forest resident.

Stopped on Pfingsten Road near the Coromandel development on the night of Jan. 1 after a dinner at Bob Chinn’s in Wheeling, Polites said he quickly observed there was another reason.

“My medical training (from military service) told me the man had suffered a seizure,” Polites said.

Polites and a female companion in his car saw the 55-year-old Deerfield resident’s Mercedes hit the curb, careen onto the grassy median and plunge into the retention pond.

“Immediately, I knew if the police did not arrive fast enough, this guy was in trouble,” said Polite, who called 911. “I drove close to where his car had left the road, put on my flashers and raised my hood. I frantically waved the police down.”

Deerfield police Officers Steve Pettorelli, Sgt. Bill Annen, Sgt. Iain McCowan and Officer Andy Kupsak were nearby and arrived quickly.

“When they got there, the water had already reached the height of the car door,” Polites said.

None of the responding officers had encountered a situation like this before, and improvising was the rule of the day. McCowan got there first and saw the car in the water about two feet from the side wall of the retention pond.

“I asked him (the victim) if he was OK and he said nothing,” McCowan said. “I put my foot on the roof to balance myself and it (the car) floated. Water was rising from the inside. I had no idea how deep it (the pond) is and it was cold.” The cars’ windows were closed.

McCowan broke the window with his baton and grabbed the man’s belt loop to hold it up. Pettorelli arrived next and held McCowan by his service belt to give him support. Fortunately, Annen had a pocketknife he used to cut the seat belt so the three of them could get the man out of the car.

“He was out in 30 seconds,” Annen said.

“We are the first responders most of the time,” Annen said. “We receive no training in water rescue. He (McCowan) used a defensive weapon (the baton) to break the window and he had a pocket knife.”

As soon as the man was out of the car, the Deerfield Fire Department took over getting him to the Highland Park Hospital emergency room. After visiting the man there and talking to hospital staff, Pettorelli said he determined a medical situation caused the accident.

Polites, who is a commercial loan manager for Wintrust Mortgage, was just happy to be of help.

“Especially when I saw the car heading to the pond, I had no idea how deep it was and it was colder than heck outside,” he said. “There was no way he was going to survive too long out there.”