Help for a Hero

Please help us raise money for John Baehr's medical bills and recuperation. While on vacation at Edisto Beach, SC John almost drowned while rescuing a young girl from the sea. Below is his wife, Tricia's account of what happened on September 17, 2020. On Thursday, 9/17/2020 John was standing near me on the beach when we both heard distressing screams of a child. The screaming seemed to be coming from a girl standing at the waters edge while a girl was being swept away out into the tumultuous ocean. I reached for my phone to call 911 and by the time I had finished the call, I couldn't find John. I ran to the waters edge and could hear John's voice in distress calling for help. As I looked out into the ocean, I could only see John, in that split second I didn't see the girl and thought his cries for help were because she had gone under. Then I looked to my right and saw someone walking a girl out of the surf, but didn't know it was who had been in distress. My attention snapped back to John and I realized that he was in distress. Then I saw him on his knees in the water and I went to him to help him with someone else I didn't know. He said he couldn't stand and we pulled him to the water's edge. Then he told us he couldn't breathe and that everything hurt. I looked to the beach entrance for emergency medical personnel and asked where they were since I had called them moments earlier. A few minutes went by as John struggled to breathe on the sand. In what seemed like eternity, the paramedics arrived and took over. They got him to the ambulance as I stood by and watched in desperation. They closed the doors of the ambulance as they worked on him, they told me they were using a cpap type machine to forced the water out of his lungs and into his body. I gave the EMT's our info asked which hospital and where. It was an hour away, I was told it was too windy for a helicopter. The ambulance drove away, it all felt so surreal. I drove to Charleston with our 18 year old daughter. When we arrived the paramedics were outside the ER, they stopped me and told me how they had let John know what a heroic thing he had done but also told me that his health status had declined en route and that they had to intubate him. They allowed my daughter and I in the ER waiting area. After what seemed like a long time, we saw a physician who explained what they were doing to save John's life and that he was on life supporting machines, the risks for infection with sea water, all the things.They said he was being transported and to go to the main hospital so we could meet him at the ICU and see him. Finally we were told that we had to wait 2 hours before we could see him while his covid test results came back.While we were waiting to hear about the test results a physician called me to get consent for a central line in John's neck. The covid test was negative and we could see him in the ICU. On Friday, 9/18 about half past 11 am his eyes fluttered and the nurse said his name loudly and he squeezed our hand. Then around 2pm, the cardiac team came in, they informed me that John's heart was only pumping at about half of its normal capacity. After they left, I thought it might be a good idea to go lay down in my car for a while. When I got to my car out of exhaustion I fell asleep and then Suddenly I was wide awake, I looked at my phone and there were a lot of missed calls from 843 area codes. Calmly, I called them back and was told by the nurses, that John was awake! The breathing tube was out and that he was making jokes and cracking all the nurses up!!! Our daughter had just arrived and we went up to see John together, we were shocked, elated, relieved. The next day, Saturday, John was released from the hospital. John was only one month away from his medicare benefits to kick in. John spent 2 days in ICU uninsured. This was truly a selfless and heroic act! John took seawater in his lungs and had stress to his heart causing it to function at about half it's normal capacity. John and his family have a small homestead where John does much of the work himself. Any amount will be helpful in his recovery.