Rob Heitz, 41, who was left paralyzed after diving into shallow water in Lake Michigan near Racine, Wis., in 2003, swims near the Ohio Street Beach on Tuesday morning. Heitz is training to swim from Alcatraz Island to San Francisco on Friday. Heitz, who describes himself as a “high-functioning quadriplegic,” had an incomplete spinal cord injury and still feels weakness and tingling on the left side of his body. (Pat Nabong/Sun-Times)
Rob Heitz lowered himself into Lake Michigan, just as the sun edged above the horizon, flaming the water’s surface a coppery pink.
The water beneath is murky on this day. But sometimes it’s so clear that Heitz, 41, sees Divvy bikes, city garbage cans, drones — even the occasional lamppost — littering the lake floor. Out of the corner of his eye, he might spot a fish, one as long as his forearm, he said.
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