A Joyful Reunion After Near Drowning

Lifesaver Comes Forward, Visits Victim at Hospital

William "Al" Slaughter was lying in his bed at George Washington University Hospital yesterday afternoon when a familiar set of black shoes appeared in his room. He looked up and saw a pair of intense, espresso-colored eyes -- and he knew the man standing before him was the one who saved his life.

Floyd Lipscomb, 47, pulled Slaughter out of the 38-degree Washington Channel on the Southwest waterfront after Slaughter fell in late Monday night. Lipscomb was aided by two homeless men and a D.C. harbor patrol officer in the rescue.

Walking into the hospital room, Lipscomb told Slaughter: "You're not going to die on me tonight." The phrase captured the sentiment of the promise Lipscomb repeated while holding onto Slaughter in the frigid water, waiting for help to arrive.

"My face just lit up when I saw him," Slaughter, 53, said from his hospital bed.

Slaughter, who developed hypothermia after being in the water for about 20 minutes, is being monitored for kidney damage and other complications of hypothermia.

Lipscomb said he paid the visit because "I wanted to see him before he left the hospital."

On Monday, he left the scene shortly after Slaughter was pulled from the water and did not provide a way to contact him. Police had been looking for him to thank him.

Police previously said Lipscomb was homeless, but Lipscomb said yesterday that he lives in Temple Hills with his mother and works at a Subway restaurant in the Navy Yard. He said the confusion might have occurred because the two men he was with that night, who also helped save Slaughter, are homeless and live under a bridge next to the channel.

The trouble began at 10:30 p.m. Monday, when Slaughter, wearing new, slippery dress shoes, fell into the water as he headed to the houseboat, Finished Business, where he lived.

He was stuck in the water for about 10 minutes, unable to hoist himself out and losing control of his muscles. Just then, he saw three men walk by -- identified by police as Lipscomb, Duke "Showtime" Kelley and DeLeon Butler.

The men, who were on their way to a friend's house, were separated from Slaughter by a seven-foot fence. Slaughter screamed to them, and Lipscomb, aided by the others, climbed over the fence and ran over to Slaughter, who was struggling to keep his head above water.

Lipscomb said that, at first, he thought the desperate cries for help were a joke. But he quickly realized that a man was in danger.