Goose-chasers fall into icy pond

Even five hours after she plunged into an icy Douglas County pond to save two young lives, Bethany Stafford couldn't stop her legs from shaking.

She had different plans for her Tuesday night, a prom planning committee meeting. But, hours earlier, she didn't hesitate to sprint across soggy grass to the bank of a nearby pond after one of her daughters screamed that two boys had fallen in.

“I was just being a mom,” Stafford said. “I didn't think. I just ran.”

Brandon Hile, 21, was in his kitchen eating dinner with Garrett, his 19-year-old brother.

They could see the pond from their seats. Warmer temperatures and rainfall had thawed part of the water's surface, but a soft, thin sheet of ice still covered roughly half of it.

About 5 p.m., the brothers saw two children run towards the pond and onto the ice. They were chasing geese, rescuers later said.

“We knew they were going to fall in,” Hile said. By the time they went outside to say something to them, the boys had.

Stafford reached the bank and walked carefully onto the ice, making sure to avoid the holes that looked ready to give way.

Then she, too, fell in.

“I couldn't breathe,” she said. “The minute I went down, all the air went out of my body.

“It was crushing, almost. It was like cinder blocks and plywood on all sides of me.”

Another of Stafford's daughters raced to help her mother, but also fell in.

By then, the Hile brothers had reached the pond, along with another neighbor.

Garrett grabbed a stretch of black garden hose to throw to the children so they could pull themselves ashore. The other neighbor stretched a ladder into the pond for Stafford and her 17-year-old daughter.

Meanwhile, Stafford struggled to grab the boys and her daughter and help them ashore.

The ice kept breaking into chunks. There was nothing to grab onto. Stafford saw the hose, then the ladder, but couldn't grip them.

Neighbors pulled the children from the water and rushed them inside to get dry clothes and blankets.

Stafford and her daughter struggled to the pond's bank. The mother and daughter collapsed on the mud and grass, shivering uncontrollably.

The ordeal lasted only a couple of minutes, Hile said. Everyone was safe by the time professional rescuers arrived northwest of 183rd and Harrison Streets.

Douglas County officials later identified the two boys and said both were about 10 years old. Their parents couldn't be reached for comment.

Paramedics took the four who fell in to Lakeside Hospital in serious condition. Each showed some signs of hypothermia, rescuers said, but all four were treated and released.

Assistant Omaha Fire Chief Dan Stolinski said water temperatures normally hover around 32 degrees this time of year.
People floundering inside water that frigid can fall unconscious or reach exhaustion in as little as 15 minutes, according to the U.S. Search and Rescue Task Force.

Neighborhood residents said the boys and their attempted rescuers were not the first to fall in. Two girls had fallen into the pond three days ago but managed to get themselves out.

Fire officials said no frozen bodies of water can be trusted to hold a human's weight this time of year.

“My message,” Stolinski said, “would be to stay off all area lakes.”

Contact the writer:
444-1068, johnny.perez@owh.com

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