Brian Butler save John P. O’Neal from drowning, Rockwood, Tennessee, January 19, 1994. John, 11, and another boy were walking on an ice-covered cove of Watts Bar Lake when the ice gave way, plunging both boys into frigid water about 15 feet deep at a point about 30 feet from the shore. The other boy pulled himself back onto the ice and alerted help from a nearby residence. Among those responding to the scene was Butler, 21, farmer, who also lived nearby. After John, weakened by the cold, failed to grasp a board that was thrown to him, he submerged. Butler immediately proceeded onto the ice for John, but before reaching him, he too broke through the ice. Then making his way to John, Butler attempted repeatedly to push him onto solid ice but could not. Losing strength himself, Butler maintained a hold on John with one arm while using the other to break a path through the ice toward shore. When they reached wadable water near shore, Butler lifted John onto solid ice then climbed from the lake himself. John was hospitalized two weeks for treatment of hypothermia and pneumonia, and he recovered. 68480-7877
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