Chicago Doctor Drowns After Saving Boys
A pediatric surgeon from Chicago drowned in Lake Michigan after saving two boys who fell out of their kayak.
Dr. Donald Liu jumped into the lake Sunday morning to save the boys, who were family friends, despite objections from his family, who were concerned about the choppy water, the Chicago Tribune reported. The boys, who were not wearing life vests, were struggling in the water after their kayak overturned.
The boys made it back to shore, but Liu was pulled under the water by a dangerous rip current. He was pronounced dead after his wife, Dr. Dana Suskind, also a surgeon, performed CPR on him. He was 50.
Two other people died Sunday in Lake Michigan.
Liu, who converted to Judaism, and his wife had three children. The family had recently visited Shanghai to celebrate his oldest child’s bat mitzvah, according to the newspaper.
Chicago media reported that he would be buried wearing University of Chicago Medicine surgical scrubs and holding a White Sox baseball, a video game and pictures of his children.
A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism so that we can be prepared for whatever news 2025 brings.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
