A Chicagoan who recently jumped into a perilously cold lake to help rescue a baby whose stroller was blown into the water by a wind gust has implored everyone in the US to “just take care of one another”.

In an interview Tuesday, Lio Cundiff, who is a trans man, said of himself: “All I did was a human act. I’m just a human who did the most human thing you could do – which is save someone who can’t save themselves.”

Cundiff made those remarks as the dramatic story about him and the rescued baby gained widespread attention across the US media.

As Chicago police told the local ABC affiliate, potent wind blew a stroller with a baby girl inside of it into Lake Michigan at the city’s Belmont Harbor on the afternoon of 18 February.

Cundiff told the Chicago Tribune that he was on a nearby bench making a telephone call when he heard terrified screams from the baby’s mother. What was happening soon dawned on Cundiff – the stroller had been blown toward the lake by winds that the National Weather Service (NWS) warned could gust up to 50 miles, and the shocked woman whose screams he heard had been unable to catch up to it.

So Cundiff instinctively stood up and dived into waters, with temperatures the NWS calculated to be in the mid-30s Fahrenheit. He reached the baby and the stroller while they were still facing up and clutched on to both.

Cundiff fought to keep the stroller and the baby from sinking under the surface.

He treaded water for what he estimated to be up to four minutes, with the baby briefly dipping below the water at a couple of instances.

Cundiff recalled another man eventually threw his jacket down for him to grab a hold of. That second man and the baby’s mother then helped get Cundiff, the infant and the stroller on to dry land.

Separate ambulances took Cundiff and the baby to the hospital. The baby arrived for observation in good condition while doctors undertook monitoring Cundiff’s heart, which he said had been affected by the frigid water.

Within a couple of days, Cundiff was back home. He said he had been contacted by the family of the baby and was thrilled to learn the newborn was “really just acting like nothing happened”.

Then came the media attention. Part of it has driven support to a GoFundMe campaign started by his girlfriend and friends, which as of Tuesday had raised about $54,000 to help him cover his hospital bill as well as the pay he missed out on having to absent from work at his server’s job.

That attention also afforded Cundiff – who is also a standup comedian – a larger than usual stage to speak about his experience living as a trans man in the US.

For years, trans and non-binary communities in Republican-controlled states have grappled with the elimination or restriction of rights and protections. Advocacy groups such as Glaad and the Human Rights Campaign, meanwhile, in recent years have documented a rise in hate crimes in the US which victimize people based on their gender identity and sexual orientation.

Cundiff on Tuesday told the Guardian that he hoped his turn in the media spotlight demonstrated to everyone “how human we are – because all I did was a human act”.

“We are human, and we’re the same as everyone else,” said Cundiff, who coincidentally was celebrating his 31st birthday on Tuesday. “And we don’t deserve the hate that we’ve gotten.”