Police divers rescued a woman who jumped off the Brooklyn Bridge wearing just pajamas yesterday morning. The 22-year-old Manhattan resident, whose name has not been released, leapt from the span near its midpoint into the East River just after 7 am.
After receiving a call, an NYPD helicopter took off from Brooklyn's Floyd Bennett Field. Detective Michael Cocchi, 42, and Officer Jeffrey Dowling, 37, hurried to put on their scuba gear and jumped out of the helicopter when it was about 10 feet above the chilly river. They used the northward current to swim towards the woman in water that was about 45 degrees, according to a detailed Times story on the rescue. "It was extremely cold," Cocchi told the Post. "I think she was in shock. She was floating, she didn’t move, she didn’t talk….She went under the water and popped back up. We knew we didn’t have much time."
The divers attached a safety device and a line to the woman and helped her board an FDNY vessel. The woman — who had been treading water for between five and ten minute before the rescue — is being treated for severe hypothermia at Bellevue Hospital and is expected to recover. "It feels good. We saved somebody’s life," said Coochi.
