Emma Paju rescued a man thrown into the sea
Drama student receives award from police and rescue services
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By Lotta Lehtonen
"It was a reflex action, I couldn’t watch a man getting killed before my eyes", says Emma Paju. Just over a week ago, she rescued an unconscious man from the sea, at a marine inlet in Helsinki’s Hakaniemi district known as Tokoinranta. The man had apparently been thrown in the water after being assaulted.
Today [Friday 15th October] the 27-year-old drama student and actress is to receive an award from the Helsinki Rescue Department, a candle-holder known as Elämän Liekki (The Flame of Life). The award is given in cases where the victim would have died without the voluntary efforts of a third party or passer-by.
Helsinki police are investigating the assault and the throwing into the sea as attempted manslaughter. Two men were subsequently arrested in connection with the incident.
"I was walking from Kamppi to Kallio via the Tokoinranta shoreline. I’d just gone past the City Theatre. From a distance I could see two men dragging this third man, who was unconscious. Even that felt awful. My first thought was whether they were all three just fooling around. Then they threw the guy bodily into the water and went to sit down on a bench nearby", says Paju, describing the events of the previous Friday.
"I yelled at them: 'What do you think you are doing?'. Then I saw how the man was slipping under the surface. So I started running."
Paju fumbled for the phone in her rucksack, but realised that there wasn’t really going to be time for any of that stuff.
She took off her long overcoat and dropped coat and bag by the shore and dived into the water. As she was going in, she ordered a woman who was out walking her dog to call the police.
"It was a pretty massive adrenaline rush. About the only thing I had time to think about was: 'Oho, so this is what it feels like when you get your clothes soaking wet.'"
Paju grabbed hold of the man’s leather coat and turned him round in the water so that he was face up.
"I kind of panicked for a moment that he was already dead. I had a hold of his coat and I held his head above water. Then I dragged him as best I could towards the shore and yelled to the two men sitting on the bench to come and help me."
They didn’t move a muscle, but a man walking from the Hakaniemi direction came over to help her. With the help of another female passer-by, they managed to haul the man onto the shore.
"He weighed a ton. When we got him onshore he threw up water, which was a relief, as we knew then he wasn’t dead."
To Paju, the worst of it all was that the two men who had thrown the third man into the water did nothing whatsoever to help.
The police arrived on the scene quickly, along with paramedics in an ambulance from the Helsinki Rescue Department. Paju was taken home. "My father happened to be in town visiting, and I was able to pour it all out to him."
Later the same evening, Paju heard from a police patrol officer that the man was alive and that the men who had beaten him up and then tossed him in the sea had both been picked up.
However, the matter is not over yet, even for Paju.
"I’ve had to go down to the police station, I’ve had a hundred phone calls, and I’m going to have to appear in court as a witness."
It is gradually dawning on her that she has saved somebody’s life. "In those blank moments, my mind goes racing back there involuntarily."
The Helsinki Police Department immediately recommended Paju for the award. It is not an everyday matter: thus far it has been given out on only 16 occasions.
Emma Paju is short and petite. She hardly looks the lifesaver type. Where did the wherewithal come from?
"I didn’t know I had that sort of thing in me. It was just a reflex response. It’s not as though I’ve been to any Red Cross first aid courses or anything", she sighs.
"The only thing I can think of is that I’m in pretty good shape. I go running. My life is pretty straightforward and OK at the moment, and I was able to function without locking up."
Paju says she has never considered herself to be particularly brave.
Since the incident, she has reflected on two things. Firstly, the importance of the work performed by the police, paramedics, fire department, and rescue workers every day - and as a matter of routine.
And secondly, how something like this can happen.
"How is it possible that a human life has such little value?"
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 15.10.2004
PIPSA LOTTA LEHTONEN / Helsingin Sanomat
lotta.lehtonen@sanoma.fi
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| 19.10.2004 - THIS WEEK |
 Emma Paju rescued a man thrown into the sea |
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