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Polk County man looking for person who saved him

Posted at 11:21 PM, Sep 30, 2016
and last updated 2016-09-30 23:21:11-04

A Polk County man, who crashed into a retention pond after a seizure, would like to meet the person who saved his life.

William Land, 47, has lived with Epilepsy since he was 12. He has had seizures at home and at work, but never in a car.

Wednesday afternoon, he was driving his sister's Jeep on I-4 when he went off the road near exit 33. The Jeep crashed into a fence, knocking it down. A post pierced through the passenger seat of the Jeep and it kept going, landing into a retention pond.

"I realized how lucky I was. I shouldn't be here. God must have been watching over me and guided that vehicle just in the right direction to where the post would miss me," Land said.

Land said the car filled with water three-quarters of the way up. He is thankful the Good Samaritan pulled him out.

"I would have drowned if he hadn't come out," Land said.

His family turned to social media to try to find the Good Samaritan. They learned someone stopped, but could not get to Land and then a firefighter pulled him out of the retention pond.

"I just want to tell them how special they are and they (were) there on that road for a reason," Charlotte Cumbie, William's sister, said.

Land was 10 miles away from home.

"This was the closest he's ever come to leaving us," Cumbie said.

Land and his family would like to meet the person who stopped and the firefighter who pulled him out.

"I would love to meet him and give him a big hug 'cause I know (if) it (weren't) for him, I probably wouldn't be here and I probably would have left a lot of family members behind," Land said.