A Long Island woman is hailed as a hero after risking her own life to save a stranger who had fallen into a frozen creek.
Kayla Masotto, 28, of Mastic Beach, sprang into action to save the man who appeared to have fallen from his boat and was unable to get out of the partially frozen Poospatuck Creek Thursday afternoon.
Masotto was sitting in her living room watching television when she noticed the man on the ice starting to get into trouble.
She ran out to his backyard to see if he needed help, but he refused, insisting he was fine.
However, moments later, Masotto saw the man’s jet ski begin to smoke and eventually sink, prompting her to spring into action.
‘I was thinking, I need to get to him as quickly as I can. “The water is freezing,” Masotto said.
He ran to his basement, grabbed a paddleboard and ran outside, where he cautiously made his way across the thin ice until he reached the man in trouble.
“I ended up running down to my basement, grabbed my paddleboard, ran outside and saw how far I could run on the ice,” Masotto said. News12.
Kayla Masotto, 28, of Mastic Beach, risked her life to save a man who appeared to have fallen from his boat and was unable to get out of the partially frozen Poospatuck Creek.
The Mastic-Beach native ran to her basement, grabbed a paddleboard and ran outside, where she cautiously made her way across the thin ice until she reached the man in trouble.
‘I just had to do what I could to try and help this man. There was no time to think honestly. “It was just kind of an adrenaline rush.”
The 28-year-old heroine placed the frozen man on her paddleboard when she reached him.
‘He had let me know that his fingers weren’t working. “My legs and hands were numb,” Masotto said.
After securing him to the foot of his board, a group of men stationed at a marina near the frozen stream, who had witnessed the harrowing incident, threw a rope at Masotto.
The couple was dragged to shore with a rope just as Mastic Fire and EMS arrived.
“This gentleman was already experiencing the early effects of hypothermia and thanks to Kayla’s actions, he will be fine after being evaluated at a local hospital,” said a statement from the Mastic Fire Department read.
Mastic Fire Department Chief Steven Januszkiewicz credits Masotto with saving the man’s life in a situation where a few seconds can mean the difference between life and death.
Masotto can be seen moving cautiously across the frozen stream in search of the frozen man.
The 28-year-old woman can be seen pulling the troubled man towards the front of her paddleboard as she successfully rescues the unidentified man.
“She just sprang into action and did what she had to do and thanked God, because in this type of situation, timing matters,” Januszkiewicz said.
“The faster you can get them out of the water, the better chance they have of survival.”
Masotto, still in disbelief about the incident, says she just wanted to make sure the man could return home to his family.
‘That’s someone’s son. That’s someone’s brother. “Maybe I’m someone’s father and I hope that if it was a member of my family, someone would do the same thing,” he said.
The man was in the early stages of hypothermia when he emerged from the water, Mastic EMS said.
He was taken to the hospital and is expected to recover.