London Bridge Rescuer: 'Being Called a Hero is Overwhelming' | This Morning

[Music] just over two weeks ago twenty-year-old jimmy ola bunny adole tragically lost his life while trying to rescue a woman from the river thames well his death has been met with an outpouring of admiration with many calling for him to be honoured for his remarkable bravery but he wasn't alone that night uh alongside him was swakin garcia who also put his life on the line to save a stranger and today he's joining us to share that story and good morning i'm sorry you're here under these circumstances but um but it is a remarkable story and so many people want to say thank you to you as well as um as to to jimmy so it's friday the 23rd of april about 10 past 12 on the east side of london bridge you're waiting for a bus yeah and what what when were you first aware that something was happening like i was just waiting for the bus with i guess like five to ten people just it was 12 but some people on the street and i started to hear some screamings and shouting so i started like to have a look there and i saw what turned to be jimmy and bernard they were running from left to right maybe shouting and panicking so i said okay this is not like a regular street thing this is some some serious thing yeah and i remember they even jumped there's like a little fence on the on that building and they jumped inside and they and they jumped back i was like okay yeah this is real and they were shouting and screaming so at that point i i was thinking i'm gonna cross the street i'm gonna ask what is happening and at that time bernard crossed the street running like not even minding the car like just crossing the street and he started to point to the river and shouting like she's there she's there and at that moment it was like less than five minutes but already some people were interested in the situation and i went to the river like to the bridge where he was pointing yeah and i saw two girls calling to the police and i i looked to the river and i saw just one face and two hands just splashing another moment i said okay this is real like this is happening not like a girl needs i don't know what is going on there no no the other man you mentioned you mentioned a couple of times there bernard cozier who was uh who's also part of this um sort of spotting her trying to find out where she was and then that's when you and jimmy you've never met before didn't know each other and you find you find yourselves standing there ready to jump in yeah um at this moment we were on top of the bridge and i guess jimmy already went downstairs and then bernard went right and when i asked if they were calling the police when i heard yes my mind said okay i'm gonna jump but not from top of the bridge so i just run downstairs yeah and then i met there i met jimmy and bernard and jimmy was already shirtless like i think that's that's a key point for um for treat him like a hero because he was not expecting any help like she was already shirtless he was just going to jump and i actually was not expecting any help either but i arrived there and jimmy turned his head and he said are you jumping are you gonna jump with me i said yes so i started to undress quickly and at some point we were just ready to jump and and he counted to three didn't he he was like one two three and you didn't wait to get to three you went in yeah when he said two i i just jumped because i really took that decision up up on the bridge like okay i have to i have to to do it and when he said two i was just with underwear and socks so i just said okay i'm gonna do it there must have been an incredible amount of adrenaline going through your body you know that there was this girl time was of the essence it's a powerful river the thames a very dangerous river it's very cold when you jumped in were you aware of the coldness around you not at all uh actually on the ambulance uh one of the of the guys told me the cold must have taken your breath out and i said actually not really like i just dive in then i started to swam directly to her and the first thing i tried was to pull her back when i wa when i jump from then pushing back but the current is so strong isn't it yeah we were already further from when from when i jumped yeah and she jumped or felt i i truly don't know from the other side of the bridge so it's been she was more time than me yeah and she was already unconscious so you um you decided the best thing to do would be to um go with the flow um and just keep her afloat yeah um and you you told her uh to um to turn herself into a plank can you say that you didn't you weren't even aware that she could hear you but she actually did comply she did lay lay flat yeah i i couldn't see her eyes or she didn't say a word during all the time so i just said listen listen um let's do the plank keep calm let's do the plank so because by then we were already 10 15 minutes as much and i was feeling tired and i said okay let's do the plank and at that moment i i don't know why but i couldn't do the plank like literally i don't know if it was the current but i just couldn't and i was starting to swallow a bit of water and at that moment was quite critical because now i was struggling so i just turned looking for jimmy or looking for some help and i saw two lights coming from from the and this was the blue lights this was the help and that's when the rescue boats came in and one boat rescued you and the relief must have been huge and there was another boat that went to the lady to rescue her and you were taken to hospital so you knew she was okay which must have been a huge relief because that was the whole point of you jumping in in the first place yeah and i didn't know who jimmy was but when i was rescued they were asking me how many did you jump like and they told me are you jimmy and i said no i'm joking and at that moment when i was just rescued they told me okay the girl is safe you are safe but we didn't find jimmy and yeah then we went to the heating room just to recover the temperature well they you went to synthesis hospital um and they do some checks and make sure that you're okay um and then the next day it's not until much much later i think it was your girlfriend that said that um that they'd sadly found him um and that he had died in the river yeah and i remember just before leaving the hospital i asked the one police officer they did they found jimmy and it was five in the morning at this time and they told me no so already at that moment was like i already been through five hours since i jumped yeah it's been through all of this and they didn't find him still and yeah as you were saying after the like was around five o'clock on the evening and my girlfriend told me you know the guy that jumped with you he passed away and at that moment was very very shocking like i had to rely on a wall and was i was really nervous and because i guess you would you run it together and you both jumped together and so i guess as with the weeks go by and you kind of piece together what happened that night and it sort of becomes a bit more clearer i guess you can't help but think that if it wasn't that for luck it could have been it could have been you it wasn't yeah that's a thing that comes to my mind every time i i think on it because i jumped from here and i in he jumped from here it was two meters i don't know why i arrived to the girl but i couldn't see jimmy at any moment like the last time i saw jimmy was when we jumped yeah so i mean it could be you know there are so many things it could be it could be the fact that he may have been affected by the cold that much more been shocked when he went in and lost his breath you can be meters apart but one current can do one thing and one current can do another as we said it's a cold powerful river and so you probably never really know that but what what we know is that two heroes jumped into the river that night sadly we lost one of them there is a woman alive because of you guys um and i know that um there are tributes on on the bridge to to jimmy now and there's talk of some sort of commemoration as well how do you feel about that i really like it and the first time i saw it was when i went there just to do some photos from for an interview and it felt really emotional because that shows that all the people is supporting that campaign for giving him the the hero medal like is truly a thing that the people wants is truly saying hero there yes and and what about you do you feel like a hero on the first days was quite hard to think on myself as a hero because i don't know if i'm to help with myself but like at the moment that i had to leave her because i was struggling like when i started to swallow water i checked that she was okay like doing the plan but i was just struggling so much that i just have to swam instinctive instinctively for help like for the boat result the boat was there the boats were already there yeah so you you were you stayed with her all of that time kept her afloat kept talking to her um all you did was board a boat and the other boat was straight there for her so yeah it has been until the second week more or less that i started to calm yeah and to think okay because one colleague told me listen he sent me some screenshots about twitter saying like joaquin should be honored as well and that felt really good at that time two two weeks or two weeks after because on the first two days as i said to being called hero legend was overwhelming because it was reminding me the the shock of course well you are a hero you are um um and uh and all heroes say they're not uh but uh in the eyes of uh of everyone who hears this uh story you are jimmy was jimmy is um and uh and we don't know who the lady was we don't know why she was in the river but we know that uh we're i'm sure pretty sure that wherever she is um she also thinks you're a hero as well um very brave man thank you thank you to meet you thank you

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Length: 11min 24sec (684 seconds)

Published: Tue May 11 2021