Cas Brouwer and Pim Agterberg (13) received a bronze medal last week for saving their classmate Rijk. After a collision near the play islands in the Amsterdamse Bos, he ended up unconscious with his head in the water. Cas and Pim joined forces and pulled the boy onto dry land.
After the evening four-day event, Cas went to the play islands in the Amsterdamse Bos with a group of boys from group 8. When Cas was waiting for his turn for a cable car ride, things went wrong.
Another boy rushed off the cable car and collided with classmate Rijk, who was standing on a raft in the water. The raft was a scaffold that had been left there after work, according to the municipality.
“I mainly thought: I have to help him, I have to save him”
Rijk fell over, hit his head on the raft and ended up in the water. He was lying on his stomach with his head in the water and did not move. “A lot went through my mind,” says Cas. “I mainly thought: I have to help him, I have to save him.”
Text continues below a photo of the water playground.
Cas ran into the water as quickly as possible, but Rijk turned out to be too heavy to lift out of the water on his own. Cas screamed for help, while his friends still stood aside in complete shock. His classmate Pim rushed into the water and together they lifted Rijk to the side.
“I was afraid it wouldn’t turn out well,” says Cas. But after a few minutes, his unconscious friend came to. Rijk was confused and did not remember what had happened.
Rijk’s mother came to the Amsterdamse Bos as quickly as possible and took him to the hospital. There he turned out to have a concussion and a broken collarbone. He is now doing well again.
“I’m really proud”
“I understood that it was very scary to see your friend lying like that,” his mother Saskia tells Cas, while NH listens on the phone. “You did the best you could do and made sure his head was out of the water. I’m really proud.”
His grandmother was also as proud as a peacock. She reported the incident to the municipality of Amstelveen and to the Royal Society for the Rescue of Drowning Persons, after which the three friends were allowed to come to Piet Heijn primary school in Amstelveen last Thursday.
Full gym
In the crowded gymnasium of their old primary school, mayor Tjapko Poppens presented Cas and Pim with a bronze medal and a certificate. Information was also provided about rescue and resuscitation to prevent as many drownings as possible.
“The certificate is now in a nice place in my room and the medal is on a cupboard here in the living room,” says Cas.