‘DO OR DIE’ TARA SAVES WOMAN
Bravery award call as woman, who can’t swim and is terrified of water, jumps into the Boyne in daring lunchtime rescue
THE woman at the centre of an incredible lunchtime rescue admits she faced a ‘do or die’ moment as she made a desperate last lunge to grab a drowning woman.
‘I knew this was it. Either I got her now, or she was gone,’ brave Tara Poleon (pictured) told the Drogheda Independent.
Tara was walking by the Boyne close to de Lacy Bridge last Friday when she noticed a woman face down in the water.
Although she can’t swim and is terrified of the water, she raced, without hesitation, to nearby steps leading down to the river and jumped in.
A local man threw a lifebuoy and she grabbed it and placed it around the woman and they were both pulled ashore as crowds of people watched the drama unfold.
THE woman at the centre of an incredible lunchtime rescue admits she faced a ‘do or die’ moment as she made a desperate last lunge to grab a drowning woman.
‘I knew this was it. Either I got her now, or she was gone,’ brave Tara Poleon (pictured left and right) told the Drogheda Independent as she recovered from the incident this week.
Tara was walking by the Boyne close to De Lacy Bridge last Friday lunchtime when she noticed a woman face down in the water.
Although she can’t swim and is terrified of the water, she raced, without hesitation, to nearby steps leading down to the river and jumped in.
A local man threw a lifebuoy and she grabbed it and placed it around the woman and they were both pulled ashore as crowds of people watched the drama unfold.
She said she didn’t have time to think as she raised the alarm with other people in the vicinity as she ran down steps to the water’s edge, threw her phone and glasses onto rocks and went in.
‘I can’t swim and I’m terrified of water, but I had to help the woman,’ she stated.
‘ The water was freezing and I was going out of my depth, but the woman was floating away, so I had to make a do or die lunge for her and managed to grab her dress. A man on the bank threw a lifering in and I managed to get it around her arm and we got back to the water’s edge.’
With that the calvary in the shape of the Boyne Fisherman’s River Rescue arrived on scene and took the victim away, with Tara transfered to a waiting ambulance and ended up in hospital for tests, released later that evening.
She got a call from the other woman’s daughter, thanking her for her bravery.
‘ Two women who were there realised I was in shock as I stood there like a drowned rat and I suffered cuts and bruises from the rocks, but I’m ok.’
Tara has had a huge reaction from people for her courage with many calling for her to be given an award for outstanding bravery.
‘I don’t know about that,’ she shyly remarked, ‘I’d be mortified!’
It has taken a while to realise the enormity of what she did, admitting she didn’t sleep on Friday. ‘I was reliving it in my head. It was traumatic,’ she admitted.
‘I was in the right place at the right time and that’s it. Everyone played a part, but I had no option but to go in after the woman.’
Tara also saved a choking woman’s life four years ago in Trim when she performed the Heimlich maneuver on her.