The man who fell nearly 150-feet off the Ambassador Bridge on Wednesday says he feels very lucky to be alive, and very grateful to those who rescued him.
Speaking to CTV Windsor, 27-year-old Spencer Baker says he remembers falling off the bridge and being in the water after he fell.
Baker, who is a structural ironworker is part of a team replacing the suspension cables that hold up the bridge, was working Wednesday, when he fell off around 4 p.m. into the Detroit River.
People fishing on the Detroit side saw him fall and pointed him out to the captain of a nearby mailboat, who rushed to his aid.
Baker was pulled aboard the board and then transported to a Detroit hospital but was released less than 24 hours later, and is now recovering at home with his fiancée and his four-month-old daughter.
He says he remembers laying in the water trying to keep his head up.
"I think I had my eyes closed and I just kind of remember being on a stretcher on the boat and then going into the ambulance. And then somehow I remembered my fiancée's phone number and the paramedic in the ambulance called my fiancée and I got to tell her I'd be alright."
A Canadian man in his 20s is recovering after falling from the Ambassador Bridge on July 12, 2023. (Source: Hollis Davist)
Baker says he has a list of injuries from the fall.
"All the ribs on my left side are broken into multiple pieces, my cheek, the right side of my face, my cheekbone is fractured, my spleen has a laceration on my spleen, I don't know if it's from the rib bones or just how hard I hit. And then my whole body's purple."
He says he's received a lot of community support since the incident.
"It's a lot to take in. I feel very lucky and I'm very grateful that I'm still here. I've been getting all kinds of support from people I don't even know, friends of friends. It's been really heartwarming."
Baker tells CTV Windsor that while he doesn't want to comment too much about what happened before he fell, as an investigation has been launched, he says he was "doing everything I needed to do".
CTV News also reached out to Baker's employer, who declined to comment due to the investigation.
Baker says along with the trauma of the incident, he's also dealing with anxiety over the medical bills he expects after being treated in a U.S. hospital.
A GoFundMe has been started to help Baker and his family during this time.
-with files and audio from CTV Windsor's Travis Fortnum