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MISSION TOWNSHIP — Neighbors helped rescue a 51-year-old man who fell out of a kayak Wednesday, Oct. 26, on East Horseshoe Lake.
The Mission Township Fire Department responded to the incident on the 29000 block of East Horseshoe Lake Road, reported at 5:12 p.m. by a homeowner on the lake. The homeowner saw Ty Sjodin of Merrifield struggling in the water and unable to get back into the overturned kayak, according to Mission Fire Chief Eric Makowski-Budrow. Mission Township is in Crow Wing County.
“He didn’t have a life jacket on,” Makowski-Budrow said. “He had a jacket with him, but the jacket was in the kayak. So he was kind of hanging on there, getting fatigued. So lucky someone saw him.”
Firefighters responded to the scene and prepared to launch a rescue boat for the man, Makowski-Budrow said. In the meantime, others took to the water in a canoe and a paddleboat, reaching the struggling man and bringing him to safety. Personnel assessed the man’s condition once he was ashore.
“He was pretty hypothermic,” Makowski-Budrow said. “We were able to wrap him up in blankets really quick.”
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Emergency responders stood by while the man took a hot shower to ensure additional medical care was not needed. The man was not transported to a medical facility.
