Two brave Hungarian water polo players put their swimming abilities to heroic use after rescuing a man from drowning in the River Kurca in Szentes on Wednesday evening.
Thirty-four-year-old Viktor Voros and Nineteen-year-old Mate Katai-Benedek, who both play for Szentes VK in Hungary’s top division, were walking home after training when they noticed a man acting unusually before launching himself into the river.
‘At first, I thought that he wanted to sit on the edge and watch the city from there, but I stepped back and told Mate to wait a bit’ Voros told the press. Moments later, the man inexplicably jumped into the river right in front of their eyes.
Voros described how he and Benedek were waiting for the man to rise to the surface of the water, but when it was clear that something was wrong, the two players did not hesitate to strip off and leap into the water.
After initially struggling to find him under the water, teenager Mate Katai-Benedek recovered the man only to find he was unresponsive.
Voros told how he and Katai-Benedek ‘pulled him out to the beach, then he stopped breathing so we started to perform CPR to revive him. After about a minute and a half, he came up with some water and then started breathing’. Another passerby at the scene had requested the emergency services, who arrived shortly after to help stabilize the man.
There is no doubt the two Szentes players, who helped their club finish eleventh last season in the OB I, saved the life of the man whose status and identity is undisclosed at present to the public.
Their quick thinking and decisive action were heroic, but for Voros the moment was bitter-sweet. ‘Unfortunately, I lost my dad by drowning in Tisza’ Voros said. ‘Then I couldn’t be there to save it, but now I managed to bring a man back to life’.
He added that ‘It’s an uplifting feeling that we helped, but I still have to process the other part of the story’.
The Water Polo club has added contact information on their Facebook page if you require support in troubled times. They posted, ‘If you feel like you need help, call 116-123 or 06-80-820-111 phone numbers reserved for those in crisis’. The line is free of charge.
