The dramatic rescue of an 11-year-old Illinois boy was caught on camera this past Sunday, showing the efforts of firefighters and police officers as they worked to retrieve the boy who had fallen in an icy pond.
According to officials, police and fire responded to the scene around 5 p.m.
Naperville News 17 reported the fire engine had returned to its station when the call came in.
On arrival, they saw the boy in the pond and a police officer threw a life ring to the boy.
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“I could see that the child was in the middle of the water at that time. We obviously got out and deployed immediately,” firefighter Jay Switak said.
Switak said they weren’t sure how long he had been in the water and given the temperature, he spoke with the boy who was “completely orientated.” Once he had established this fact, he said he advised the boy to keep his head above the water. The boy told him he could do this as he was able to touch the bottom of the pond.
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Paramedic Mike Leston, who had donned a cold water suit in the ambulance on the way to the scene, was then sent out into the water.
Though the boy had been holding on to the life ring, it had reportedly slipped out of his grasp, but Leston was by the boy’s side.
Leston said he was impressed by the boy’s demeanour despite the situation.
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“For being a child of a relatively young age, for him to be as calm as he was made everything so much easier for us,” Leston said. “He was able to talk with us and explain what happened and explain that he was standing on the ground so he wasn’t treading water or wasting or expending energy.”
The dive team followed strict procedure and training, but Leston said the boy’s composure and their reaction kept the situation from becoming tense.
According to the fire department, the boy had said he was testing the shoreline with “a bat or a stick” and thought it would hold so he began to walk out onto the pond and started bouncing in the middle and “that’s when the ice gave way.”
The boy was taken to the hospital as a precaution, but he is expected to be fine.
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