Lifesaver Comes Forward, Visits Victim at Hospital
By Allison Klein
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, January 26, 2007
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.
Holding onto Slaughter was no easy task. Lipscomb, who weighs about 135 pounds, tried to pull Slaughter, 50 pounds heavier, out of the channel. But he did not have the strength to lift him and his heavy wool coat out. Lipscomb held onto Slaughter even as his hands became numb from the cold water, he said.
Slaughter's head fell below the water twice, but Lipscomb held on tightly to Slaughter's arm and told him not to give up, both men said. "I think that's what saved him," Lipscomb said.
Kelley and Butler alerted officers that a man had fallen into the water in the 1100 block of Maine Avenue. Officer Hilliard Dean of the D.C. police harbor patrol quickly arrived, and the two homeless men hoisted Dean over the fence so he could aid Slaughter, Dean said.
Dean and Lipscomb each grabbed one of Slaughter's arms and tugged him out of the water. Hypothermia had set in.
Lipscomb's mother said yesterday that she learned about her son's good deed on the TV news Tuesday night. "I'm proud of him," she said. "I'm glad he was able to help."
Slaughter, who hopes to be released from the hospital soon, said he is looking for meaning in his near-death experience.
"I don't believe in coincidences in life," he said. "I'm sure there's a message in this somewhere."
Lipscomb, who grew up in Northeast Washington, simply said he was "in the right place at the right time."
"I was meant to save that man's life," he said. "I was raised to give a hand if you can. I gave two hands that night."
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