#’Humble hero’ who jumped off bridge to save toddler identified

The good Samaritan who leaped from a Maryland bridge to save a drowning toddler recalled the harrowing rescue, saying he got to the 2-year-old girl just as she was sinking beneath the waters of Assawoman Bay.

“I saw the car seat and some other items,” Jonathan Bauer said, WJLA-TV reported.

“And about six feet away from the car seat was a little girl. She was on her back completely floating, head completely out of the water, arms moving, legs kicking, in a little pink dress.”

That’s when Bauer, who was part of a multi-car pileup on the overpass, jumped 25 feet into the water, he told the station.

“I pupped up, swam over to the girl, lifted her out of the water and looked at her,” he said. “Her mouth was open, her eyes were semi-open and then I put her against my shoulder very high and aggressively patted her on the back. And within seconds she spit up a bunch of water — a lot of water — and then started coughing and took a deep breath.”

Bauer handed the toddler to two boaters who saw the mishap and motored over, getting the girl to safety and to a local hospital, where she was treated.

At a press conference Friday, Ocean City Mayor Richard Meehan called the good Samaritan a “humble hero.”

Bauer’s wife agreed.

“I can’t say how proud I am of him,” Wendy Bauer told WJLA. “It doesn’t surprise me. If you know him, that is something he would do.”