On Sunday afternoon on May 2nd, 51-year-old Jonathan Bauer and his teenage daughter Ava of Berlin, Maryland, were running errands in Ocean City, which brought them to the Route 90 bridge over Assawoman Bay.
About half way over, they were caught up in a serious domino effect five car pile-up.
It was indeed serious.
One pickup was halfway over the edge, hanging on by the guardrail.
Eight people had to be rushed to the hospital….thankfully, Jonathan and Ava came away from it shaken but unhurt.
After checking on his daughter, Jonathan left the car to check on the other accident victims, and first rushed over to the pickup.
The woman driver had a terrified look and motioned to him to look in the water 25- 40 feet below.
Jonathan did so and what he saw when his brain computed it made his heart sink.
The womans 18 month-old daughter was strapped into her child safety seat, and was ejected from the passenger seat and was floating in the light choppy seas.
Somehow, the child was then ejected from the safety seat.
"When I looked over, I saw the car seat and some other items, and about 6 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, and a little pink dress."
He yelled to Ava to call for help.
He looked back down.
“She had flipped over onto her stomach and her face was in the water.”
And this is when i should tell you that Jonathan has had a profound fear of heights his entire life.
He kicked off his shoes and jumped in feet first in the precariously shallow water.
He would be jumping into a 5 foot depth.
He swam to the toddler, who appeared semi concious, and put her over his shoulder and patted her back unil she started coughing.
"I popped up, swam over to the girl, lifted her out of the water, and looked at her. 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."
Joe Oertel and his daughter Alayna were in their pontoon boat and could see from afar the pickup dangling, and headed over as fast as possible.
She was taken to Johns Hopkins Children's Center and has fully recovered.
Jonathan was himself in shock.
Humble and stoic are terms used often.
Here….they apply.
For almost a week, Jonathan, who is vice president of information systems for Atlantic General Hospital, was able to keep his name from the media…..he truly wanted to remain anonymous.
Until an intrepid reporter found out the identity of the ‘humble hero’.
Rightfully, the thank you’s started pouring in, which included Maryland Governor Larry Hogan presenting him with a governor’s citation and the Ocean City Fire Department naming his family honorary members of the department.
Even billboards.
And then grooviness came from way up on high.
Well, not that high, but high enough...
….the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds acrobatic jet team.
“ Jonathan Bauer is our Thunderbirds’ “Hometown Hero” for the Ocean City Air Show.
His selfless act shows the best America has to offer, and we’re proud to have honored him with a flight today.”
And he got strapped into the backseat of a F-16 Fighting Falcon for a 45 minute ride that reached 7 G’s.
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But in truth, for a man such as this….these are all puff pieces.
It was when the mother of the child he saved came up to him after a presentation, and looked in his eyes, and, speaking softly, told him “thank you for saving my daughter,” and hugged him….
…..that was the million dollar reward.
For a man such as this.
