Man turns hero for saving wife over mum
Madam Sun: A little worse for wear but otherwise recovering nicely at hospital.
A man caught in a desperate situation chose to save his drowning wife instead of his mum, who were both in a boating accident, and has now incurred the wrath of his family while gaining massive public support for his action.
China's Anhui province resident Xiao Guo, 28, told reporters he had taken his 52-year-old mum, Madam Sun, and his wife, Xiao Qing, on a fishing trip to Dianbu River. Madam Sun was casting the net when Xiao Qing leaned over the same side and tipped the boat over.
Neither Madam Sun nor Xiao Qing could swim. Faced with losing his wife to a watery grave or seeing his mum sink to the bottom of the six-metre deep river, Xiao Guo reacted instantly—as a devoted husband instead of a loyal son.
Xiao Guo pulled Xiao Qing to the overturned boat and pushed it toward the bank as she clung on for dear life. Once she was safe, he dove back into the water to try and rescue his mum.
Xiao Guo told reporters he had heard of people asking married couples the question, "If your mother and your wife were drowning, who would you save?" But he never imagined it would happen to him.
"My wife has never asked me that question, but I've thought about it and I told myself I must rescue my mother first," he said. When push came to shove, however, Xiao Guo found himself doing the complete opposite.
Xiao Guo's dad was mad as hell by his son's ultimate choice and reporters overheard him ripping into his son at the hospital. "Your mother was drowning and you only thought about your wife! She was hanging on to the boat already! How much danger was she in that you have to take her to shore first?"
"Of course, you must rescue your mother first!" he yelled. "Don't you care about her? She is very weak! She just had gallbladder operation!" We're guessing his daughter-in-law won't be on his Chinese New Year list.
The river and the boats that caused Guo's fateful decision.
But the story does have a happy ending: Madam Sun made it out alive. Xiao Guo managed to reach her in time and dragged her unconscious body to solid ground. Doctors told him that she had sucked a ton of water into her lungs and if he had been two minutes too late, she would have died.
Madam Sun told reporters that the last thing she remembers was seeing her son swim towards her, and added that she wasn't angry with him and had forgiven him. "I don't blame him. If not for him, I would have drowned," she said.
Xiao Guo insists he wasn’t thinking when he acted on gut instinct. "My wife was nearer to me," he explained. When asked if he would react differently if he could do it all again, he said he wouldn't. "I think the rescue sequence was acceptable. They were all saved." Xiao Guo and Xiao Qing were married in 2008.
Meanwhile, in an online poll conducted by ifeng.com, almost 54% of the 19,562 respondents on the survey overwhelmingly supported Xiao Guo's move to save the loved one closest to him. A paltry 2,963 people sided with his dad.
Source: Xinan Evening News
Published: 30th July 2012
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