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Chicago Sun-Times
Chicago Sun-Times
National
Stefano Esposito

19 years after accident left him a quadriplegic, Chicagoan completes swim from Alcatraz to San Francisco shore

San Francisco Chicago SunTimes
Rob Heitz, 41, who was paralyzed after diving head first into shallow water in Lake Michigan in Racine, Wisc. in 2003, swims off the Ohio Street Beach. On Friday, he completed a swim from Alcatraz Island to the San Francisco shoreline. | Sun-Times file photo. (Pat Nabong/Sun-Times,)

Shrouded in fog, Rob Heitz swam from Alcatraz Island to the San Francisco shoreline Friday morning, completing a feat few would have thought possible for a man left a quadriplegic after a 2003 boating accident.

“I survived!” Heitz said, just an hour or so after finishing the 65-minute swim.

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