‘I know what to do, mom!’: 6-year-old B.C. boy helps save mother from frigid ocean

It’s a story Shannon Burnside may end up telling at her son Jax’s wedding — but that will have to wait a few decades.

For now, the Colwood, B.C., mother is just happy to be alive and glowingly proud about the role her six-year-old son played in saving her life.

It all unfolded the afternoon of Saturday, Nov. 17, when the pair was fishing for crabs at the Cheanuh Marina in Colwood.

The duo was at the farthest end of the boat dock, about 300 metres from shore, setting their last trap of the day, when Burnside lost her footing.

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“I stepped backward, and my foot was half-on and half-off the dock and I fell backward with the trap in my hand into the water,” she said.

The water was about 2 C, and while Burnside was wearing a life preserver, she realized quickly that she wasn’t able to pull herself out of the water.

That’s when Jax stepped in.

“He’s like, ‘I know what to do, mom!’ He told Siri to call 911, but it didn’t do anything because there was no signal.”

Jax tried his father and the marina office on the phone, also with no luck.

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“I told him he was going to have to go and get help, the first person he sees, and not to run. So he started to run,” she said, laughing.

While Jax headed back toward the marina office, Burnside managed to lock her arm onto part of the dock as her body began to freeze up.

“My body, all my muscles stopped working, and I couldn’t pull myself up any more,” she said.

Jax was midway back to the marina office when he managed to catch the attention of Grant Sawyer, a marina employee.

“We happened to hear somebody screaming, or it sounded like a little boy screaming, and we looked over to our right, and maybe about 100 yards down the dock, there was a little boy with his life-jacket on, screaming for help.”

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "We happened to hear somebody screaming, or it sounded like a little boy screaming, and we looked over to our right, and maybe about 100 yards down the dock, there was a little boy with his life-jacket on, screaming for help."

Sawyer sprinted down the dock, arriving just as Burnside lost her grip.

“I was going under the dock,” she said.

Sawyer caught hold of Burnside and held on until more people arrived to help.

“When someone’s in the water, their weight doubles — or feels like it doubles,” he said.

The crowd of rescuers were eventually able to hoist Burnside from the water, and with the help of another woman with a boat who’d come to help, bring her back to shore and warm her up.

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Sawyer, who has Level 3 first aid certification, said Burnside was close to hypothermic and monitored her vitals for about half an hour to make sure she was okay.

“We figure she was in for 10 to 15 minutes, which is a long time in these waters,” he said, adding the episode was a good lesson in why people should always wear a life vest.

In the end, Burnside was left with a dislocated shoulder, a bruised arm and a cut from a nail.

But, she says, if her young son hadn’t kept his head, she may not have survived to tell the story.

“I don’t think so; it was pretty far. I had waited quite a bit. I probably shouldn’t have. I was trying to get out myself,” she said.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "I don't think so; it was pretty far. I had waited quite a bit. I probably shouldn't have. I was trying to get out myself," she said.

“It would have been close,” added Sawyer.

“When I got there, she could no longer use her hands to hold onto the dock, was just pinching her hands, with her wrists.”

Burnside added that while she’s proud of her son, she’s also extremely grateful to the strangers who came to her aid.

“The most important thing is how all those people helped me,” she said.

“There was six people coming from all different directions, literally, and they all just got there and they worked together fast and they knew exactly what to do to help me.”