By Pepper Fisher
DIAMOND POINT – A 14-year-old boy had a brush with death on Monday when he fell through the ice along the shore at Diamond Point before being rescued by quick-thinking bystanders.
According to Clallam 3 Fire’s Battalion Chief Stefanie Anderson, the call came in around 10:30am Monday that someone was “thrashing around” in the water about 60 feet offshore after falling through the ice.
Battalion Chief Anderson arrived first and saw that the boy was standing in about 3 feet of water, struggling to break the thick ice to get back to shore. She says he had been in the water for 10-15 minutes. Although he had gotten himself to within 30 feet from the shore, he was becoming lethargic and disoriented from the extreme cold.
Two bystanders were able to throw a buoy with a rope attached and got it close enough for the boy to grab and wrap around his body. At that point, the two bystanders and Battalion Chief Anderson were able to pull him up onto the ice and haul him to the shore.
Anderson reports the patient was exhibiting extreme signs of hypothermia, so he was quickly moved to an aid car where rapid rewarming procedures could be started. He was later flown to Providence Medical Center in Everett, and Anderson on Tuesday gave us this update on his condition.
“Yeah, we did get an update that he had gotten to Providence. They took care of him there, and then did transfer him to Children’s, it sounds like. But, his CT scans showed negative, so they were just trying to warm him up and make sure there was no other lasting effects. But, from the report that we did get, he’s expected to make a full outcome.”
Anderson credits the two men on the scene for their quick action in the face of an emergency.
“The only other thing I would like to add is, the quick thinking of the bystanders definitely helped. We were a little bit delayed, due to ice and snow, getting our resources out there. So, those two gentlemen were definitely very helpful and instrumental in making sure this call did have a positive outcome. So, I can’t thank them enough for actually acting on the situation.”
(Photo by Battalion Chief Stefanie Anderson)