When God wants to protect someone He can use anyone to do the job, and this amazing story is proof of it where a dog helped rescue the life of a young man.
A ‘hero’ dog is being credited for saving the life of a man from Massachusetts after he fell through the ice in a nearby pond.
Psalm 56:13 says, “For You have delivered my soul from death, Indeed my feet from stumbling, So that I may walk before God In the light of the living.”
Thomas Walsh was walking his 5-year-old German shepherd, Diesel, on Wednesday afternoon when the dog alerted him about a man who had fallen through the ice in a nearby pond.
The dog started barking to alert Walsh about it and discovered the other man stuck in Quarter Mile Pond on the town line of Stoneham and Medford, Massachusetts.
“[Diesel is] the hero today, because without him seeing or hearing [the man], I would have just kept walking,” Walsh, who’d been wearing earbuds before Diesel started barking.
The 22-year-old man fell through the ice at about 1:45 p.m. Wednesday, according to the Stoneham Fire Department.
Walsh said that the man had been riding his bike when he started across the ice. “Ripping across right in the middle, he went right through,” Walsh said. “I’m surprised he didn’t go through near the edge.”
After being alerted by Diesel, Walsh called 911, tied the dog to a tree and directed the man to crawl on the ice toward the shore, where he and another passerby used a branch to pull him off the pond. It was very difficult as the man kept falling through the ice as he crawled.
“I told him to try to relax, catch your breath, because he was panicking… My instinct was to go in and help him, I’m a great swimmer, but you can’t do that in the wintertime,” Walsh said.
Soon the Stoneham police and firefighters arrived and the man was taken to a local hospital in an ambulance, according to the fire department who added that he was treated for injuries that were not life-threatening.
“We are grateful for this outcome and for Diesel alerting his owner that something was wrong,” Stoneham Fire Chief Matthew Grafton said in a written statement.
“The two men who helped the patient get to shore did the right thing by calling 911 immediately and using a branch to help pull him in rather than trying to get in the water themselves. These actions helped to save a man’s life this afternoon and are nothing short of heroic.”