BARRY COUNTY (WKZO AM/FM) — A 20-year-old man from Howell lost his leg in a boating accident on Gun Lake in Barry County late Sunday afternoon and the boat operator has been charged.
Deputy Bill Johnson says Cameron Cichosz apparently stepped off a boat in one of the lake’s inlets just as 21-year-old Michael Butzke opperating the boat suddenly turned, shearing off the Chichosz’s leg just above the knee with the propeller.
Two doctors vacationing from Detroit, Dr. Lauren Azevedo and her husband Dr. Ryan Keating, used a tourniquet to save the Cichosz’s life until EMT’s arrived to take him to Spectrum Health for emergency surgery.
He lost his right leg above the knee, ending his plan to join the Marines, but because of quick-action, he did not lose his life.
Barry County authorities arrested and charged Butzke for operating a watercraft while intoxicated causing injury.
