02-01-2005, 04:29 PM
Teen saves brother in ice-fishing drama
By Lee Sensenbrenner
Capital Newspapers
OXFORD - Like many middle children in large outdoorsy families, Ben Farwell has had his brushes with death.![[Image: adlog.php?bannerid=877&clientid=812&...2f041f885d]](http://64.73.25.73/adserver/adlog.php?bannerid=877&clientid=812&zoneid=163&source=&block=0&capping=0&cb=3215e3805a0f4ee58e2fe02f041f885d)
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There was the time, for instance, when as a 4-year-old he was standing on his tiptoes in the shallow end of the pool as older children did cannonballs off the diving board. The waves washed over his head, and before long Ben was floating face down.
His aunt, Stacy Farwell, then a 16-year-old, said Ben had turned "gray like E.T." After he was revived, according to family legend, Ben talked about drifting out of his body and seeing himself from above.
Winter canoeing and kayaking trips that the Deerfield family has taken around area rivers have also, not surprisingly, produced some scary moments.
But none of these experiences, Ben said, was as harrowing as what he went through last weekend, when his younger brother, Sam, somehow found the strength to rescue him.
The two boys - Ben is 16 and Sam is 14 - were ice fishing with their aunt Stacy on Neenah Lake, a Marquette County mill pond on the edge of Oxford.
After a few hours of catching little, Stacy left to get lunch at their grandparents' house some eight miles away, but the two boys decided to stay.
"The weather started getting colder and the wind was blowing harder, so I pulled my arms out of my snowsuit sleeves and put them across my chest," Ben said, demonstrating how his arms were folded like a mummy's.
It was then, as Ben was following his younger brother to where a tip-up indicated a fish bite, that he fell through the ice, plunging into water that was about 15 feet deep.
"It felt like a million knives going into me," Ben said. "I couldn't breathe. I couldn't think." With his arms trapped against his chest, he was hanging to the edge of the ice with his chin as all the gear he was wearing - including a pair of 7-pound steel-shank boots - threatened to pull him under.
Ben said he yelped as the ice broke, but once he was in the water he was stunned breathless, knowing only, as he watched his brother turn around and scan the horizon blankly, that he couldn't let his chin slip.
Sam said that after taking a few steps back toward the shout, he saw his brother's head at the edge of a hole roughly the size of a manhole cover. At first, a snowdrift obscured the view.
Sam slid to the hole on his belly, he said, and began pulling on his brother's collar. But he could only bob him up a little that way, so he rose to his knees, took the empty sleeves in his hands and yanked back with all he had.
When Ben tells the story, it's as if the whole thing happened in the blink of an eye. His brother had him out before he really knew what was going on, before he could even recover his breath to ask for help. Throughout the whole thing, he said, "the only thing I could do was stare at Sam."
But when Sam tells the story, there's an awful moment of doubt that he said seemed to span forever, the moment when he rose to his knees and feared he'd still be unable to pull his brother out.
Sam said he knew he needed to succeed. The only other people ice fishing were across the lake and at that moment could not hear anything because they were drilling through the ice.
Ben outweighs Sam by more than 30 pounds, and Ben said he probably had at least 20 pounds of clothing and tackle on him, not to mention the weight of the water that had drenched his snowsuit.
"I really don't know how he pulled me up," Ben said. "Because it was like two seconds and I was out."
The next part of their story is the part they laugh about now, a week after Sunday's rescue.
When Stacy returned from lunch about 15 minutes later, Sam opened the car door and told her that "Ben had an incident." Before she arrived, they had been debating what to do for help. Sam was offering his clothes and trying to get them to a phone or someone's car while Ben kept saying he was fine and didn't want the attention.
"I got him in the car right away and told him to get his clothes off," Stacy said.
As they drove to their grandparents' house, Stacy said that Ben "still wasn't quite mentally there" and she kept putting her hand on Ben to lend him any warmth she could. "He felt ice cold."
When they got home to their grandparents, Ben spent a half hour in a warm shower. Still, when he got out, his temperature measured just 94.2 degrees.
Stacy said that the family has since asked about the lake and was told a current from a spring weakened the ice, which was more than a foot thick elsewhere. She said car tracks passed within 10 feet of where Ben fell through.
Ben said he and his younger brother have always gotten along, but he looks at him differently now.
"He saved my life last weekend," Ben said. "I'm nicer to him now, and now I think he's stronger than me. Well, maybe he's not stronger than me. But he's pretty strong."
Does Sam view his older brother differently? "I guess," Sam said. "He's really heavy."
Friday, the two were leaving for another weekend of ice fishing. "At a different spot," Ben said. "I love the water."
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By Lee Sensenbrenner
Capital Newspapers
OXFORD - Like many middle children in large outdoorsy families, Ben Farwell has had his brushes with death.
There was the time, for instance, when as a 4-year-old he was standing on his tiptoes in the shallow end of the pool as older children did cannonballs off the diving board. The waves washed over his head, and before long Ben was floating face down.
His aunt, Stacy Farwell, then a 16-year-old, said Ben had turned "gray like E.T." After he was revived, according to family legend, Ben talked about drifting out of his body and seeing himself from above.
Winter canoeing and kayaking trips that the Deerfield family has taken around area rivers have also, not surprisingly, produced some scary moments.
But none of these experiences, Ben said, was as harrowing as what he went through last weekend, when his younger brother, Sam, somehow found the strength to rescue him.
The two boys - Ben is 16 and Sam is 14 - were ice fishing with their aunt Stacy on Neenah Lake, a Marquette County mill pond on the edge of Oxford.
After a few hours of catching little, Stacy left to get lunch at their grandparents' house some eight miles away, but the two boys decided to stay.
"The weather started getting colder and the wind was blowing harder, so I pulled my arms out of my snowsuit sleeves and put them across my chest," Ben said, demonstrating how his arms were folded like a mummy's.
It was then, as Ben was following his younger brother to where a tip-up indicated a fish bite, that he fell through the ice, plunging into water that was about 15 feet deep.
"It felt like a million knives going into me," Ben said. "I couldn't breathe. I couldn't think." With his arms trapped against his chest, he was hanging to the edge of the ice with his chin as all the gear he was wearing - including a pair of 7-pound steel-shank boots - threatened to pull him under.
Ben said he yelped as the ice broke, but once he was in the water he was stunned breathless, knowing only, as he watched his brother turn around and scan the horizon blankly, that he couldn't let his chin slip.
Sam said that after taking a few steps back toward the shout, he saw his brother's head at the edge of a hole roughly the size of a manhole cover. At first, a snowdrift obscured the view.
Sam slid to the hole on his belly, he said, and began pulling on his brother's collar. But he could only bob him up a little that way, so he rose to his knees, took the empty sleeves in his hands and yanked back with all he had.
When Ben tells the story, it's as if the whole thing happened in the blink of an eye. His brother had him out before he really knew what was going on, before he could even recover his breath to ask for help. Throughout the whole thing, he said, "the only thing I could do was stare at Sam."
But when Sam tells the story, there's an awful moment of doubt that he said seemed to span forever, the moment when he rose to his knees and feared he'd still be unable to pull his brother out.
Sam said he knew he needed to succeed. The only other people ice fishing were across the lake and at that moment could not hear anything because they were drilling through the ice.
Ben outweighs Sam by more than 30 pounds, and Ben said he probably had at least 20 pounds of clothing and tackle on him, not to mention the weight of the water that had drenched his snowsuit.
"I really don't know how he pulled me up," Ben said. "Because it was like two seconds and I was out."
The next part of their story is the part they laugh about now, a week after Sunday's rescue.
When Stacy returned from lunch about 15 minutes later, Sam opened the car door and told her that "Ben had an incident." Before she arrived, they had been debating what to do for help. Sam was offering his clothes and trying to get them to a phone or someone's car while Ben kept saying he was fine and didn't want the attention.
"I got him in the car right away and told him to get his clothes off," Stacy said.
As they drove to their grandparents' house, Stacy said that Ben "still wasn't quite mentally there" and she kept putting her hand on Ben to lend him any warmth she could. "He felt ice cold."
When they got home to their grandparents, Ben spent a half hour in a warm shower. Still, when he got out, his temperature measured just 94.2 degrees.
Stacy said that the family has since asked about the lake and was told a current from a spring weakened the ice, which was more than a foot thick elsewhere. She said car tracks passed within 10 feet of where Ben fell through.
Ben said he and his younger brother have always gotten along, but he looks at him differently now.
"He saved my life last weekend," Ben said. "I'm nicer to him now, and now I think he's stronger than me. Well, maybe he's not stronger than me. But he's pretty strong."
Does Sam view his older brother differently? "I guess," Sam said. "He's really heavy."
Friday, the two were leaving for another weekend of ice fishing. "At a different spot," Ben said. "I love the water."
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