On Aug. 5, 2018 Jeff Vopni saved Osoyoos resident Lynnda Millward from drowning in Osoyoos Lake. The two met again on April 20 for the first time since the incident. (Vanessa Broadbent / Osoyoos Times)
By Vanessa Broadbent
Osoyoos Times
Jeff Vopni regularly paddle boards on Osoyoos Lake while visiting his parents, but his Aug. 5 trip last year was one he’ll never forget.
A cardiac nurse in Vancouver, Vopni rescued Osoyoos resident Lynnda Millward from nearly drowning that day, and the two were reunited on April 20 for the first time since the incident.
Millward doesn’t remember much of the incident, but would regularly swim in the lake with her dog Quinn near her home at Sunshine Cove.
“I went in the water with the dog, same as I always have, and we were swimming around a pontoon boat.
“I was swimming along and I guess Quinn saw something in the water. She just ducked under, and I went to see what she was doing, but her leash got a little bit tangled in the buoy chain and I went to pull it and she reared up and I know I hit my head on the pontoon boat.”
Vopni was walking back to his parents’ house on Lobelia Drive when he spotted Quinn barking on the beach. He had seen the dog before, but always with its owner.
“I was just about to put the board in and saw the dog and turned around and looked out in the water and I saw her (Millward), but she didn’t look right. I thought she had a snorkel and goggles on because she was face-down in the water.”
He paddled out and when noticing she was unconscious, Vopni pulled her onto the board and headed back to shore.
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Millward’s husband Don was on the patio of their house and could see what was happening. He called 911.
As Vopni reached shore, a group of people ran towards him to help. Two of them had first aid training – a first responder and a veterinarian.
They knew CPR could cause her to choke, so Vopni placed Millward on her side and with help from the two others looked for a pulse.
“It was so faint. I didn’t feel anything, but when we put her on her back and did a jaw thrust and she gasped we were like, ‘oh my God, she’s alive.’ Then we could feel a pulse.”
When the paramedics arrived, they were able to drive down a service lane, which Vopni said was “perfectly placed.”
“Tony, a paramedic, was running down the beach and he didn’t even do up his boots. His boots were wide open, laces everywhere. I’m on the beach and I’m looking and I see these feet coming; I don’t even see him yet.”
Vopni won’t take sole credit for the rescue and said it couldn’t have happened without the help of the two passersby and first responders, and Quinn’s barking.
“It was a total team effort.”
Nine months after the incident, Vopni said it was nice to see Millward looking healthy, unlike his last memory.
As for Millward, she hasn’t swam in the lake, or any water, since the incident, but she’s heading out to Honolulu and is determined to make it in the ocean.
On Aug. 5, 2018 Jeff Vopni saved Osoyoos resident Lynnda Millward from drowning in Osoyoos Lake after he heard her dog Quinn barking. The two met again on April 20 for the first time since the incident. (Vanessa Broadbent / Osoyoos Times)
