A Deer Park family survived an ordeal in a pond near their home on Thursday when two boys went through ice trying to rescue the family dog and were saved by their mother, who then got stuck, and then their father came to her aid as rescuers arrived.
“The dog went in first, and the kids went out to get the dog,” said Fire Chief John Malcolm of the Lake Zurich Fire Department. A 911 call was made at 5:49 p.m. for a person in a pond in the 21000 block of Inglenook Court, according to a news release.
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Malcolm added that one of the boys was able to get out with the dog, and their mother went in to get the second son.
“Then she wasn’t able to get out herself,” he said, adding that the woman was about 500 feet from shore and could not touch the bottom of the retention pond. The father went to assist his wife, and the firefighters arrived shortly with a rescuer already in a special suit for ice-water rescues.
“It’s not uncommon for us to have someone getting ready on the way there when we get a call of someone in the water,” he said.
According to Malcolm, rescuers had the family out in about 10 minutes, with two firefighters staying on the shore with ropes while a third went to the woman trapped in the water.
“It was pretty thin ice. He fell through himself,” Malcolm said.
The mother and father were taken to Advocate Good Shepherd Hospital in Barrington in stable condition Thursday evening, according to Malcolm, and he said Friday he believed both had been released.
“I’m just glad everyone was OK,” he said.