A Gatineau man is being hailed a hero for plunging multiple times into a freezing lake to save his wife.
Kevin Wiseman is a snowmobile club maintenance worker, and was grooming trails in the Outaouais community of Val des Monts on the shores of Lake McMullin, about hour outside of Ottawa.
Wiseman was joined by his wife Audrey Berndt Wednesday night. The couple were on a trail that Wiseman does not usually clean and unknowingly drove out onto the frozen lake. The heavy machine quickly broke through, with the couple inside.
"I hit the windshield with my forehead," Wiseman told CTV News. "That's how I saved my life. I broke open the windshield and 'whoosh', the water came in."
He made it to the surface, gasping for air. But his wife Audrey was still trapped.
"My life flashed in front of my eyes," she said. "When I took that last big gulp of water, I said to myself, 'my poor kids, my poor husband, I'm going to die.'"
Wiseman dove back down twice but could not help his wife.
"If I didn't find my wife, I was going to stay under, too."
Wiseman took one last deep breath and went back under a third time, this time was finally able to grab Audrey by the shoulder and pull her to safety.
The couple made it to a neighbouring house, where Evelyne Steele and her husband called 9-1-1.
"They needed help," Steele said. "They were soaking wet. We managed to drag her in, she didn't have any strength in her legs, and she couldn't walk. She was in shock."