According to accounts, a joyful game of catch turned sad over the Fourth of July holiday weekend in Lake Michigan, resulting in the deaths of an autistic kid and his father from Illinois. The incident occurred during the holiday weekend.
In the afternoon of Saturday, David Meneou, 65, and Jamie Meneou, 20, were out sailing when they dropped anchor on a sandbar close to Indiana Dunes National Park and began tossing about a ball, which eventually ended up in the river.
Jamie rushed after the ball, but he started to struggle in the deep water. This prompted his father to dive in after him, but he ended up putting himself in risk as well, according to the Indiana Department of Natural Resources.
Despite the fact that a good Samaritan rescued the enthusiastic sailors from the water, it was already too late.
Daniel Meneou, David’s brother, told the local outlet that Jamie was his life. He speculated that there may have been a rapid drop-off in the lakebed that finally led to the terrible tragedy. “Jamie was his life,” he said.
My brother was going to make an effort to save his son, that much was obvious. The number of boaters who were in the area and helping out was really high. To put it another way, it gave us a positive feel at the time.
The two individuals were transported to a local hospital at approximately 4:20 p.m., where they were subjected to cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) for over half an hour; nevertheless, upon arrival, both the father and the boy were pronounced dead.
According to David Benjamin, who works for the Great Lakes Surf Rescue Project, it is highly probable that the ball drifted further and quicker into perilous depths due to the influences of offshore winds. Benjamin also mentioned that drownings in the region are all too often.
According to what he shared with the site, “I’ve seen this happen before, where someone overthrows a football to their buddy, and it goes over their head, or they miss the ball – now it’s blowing in the wind away from shore, and they chase after it.”
“Swimming is not the same thing as being safe around water. At the moment, there have been seventeen people who have drowned in Lake Michigan as of the eighth of July. In Lake Michigan, there is a possibility that another thirty people will drown this year.
Last year, there were 51 people who drowned in the Great Lakes alone, according to the data collected by the rescue operation.
Despite this, the heartbroken Meneou family is finding some measure of comfort in the knowledge that their loved ones were spending their dying moments together doing precisely what they enjoyed doing — playing with a ball during their final moments.
Candace Keller Meneou, Jamie’s mother, expressed her sorrow by saying that her son’s favorite activity was playing catch with his father, as reported. Jamie was the only child of the couple who had previously been together.
David has a deep and abiding affection for his son.
He recalled his nephew as a young kid who was intelligent and sensitive, and who enjoyed swimming in his backyard pool. Daniel regarded his courageous sibling as someone who was driven and motivated throughout his life.
Daniel told the other person, “They were both wonderful people, and my brother is a wonderful father.”
That being said, I consider him to be a hero for this.
An investigation is still being conducted into the horrific incident.
