A father and his son were rescued from icy water Sunday while deer hunting in southwest Iowa.
DNR Conservation Officer Richard Price says 49-year-old Terry Garvey and his 13-year-old son, Montana, were wading across Willow Slough in Mills County near Hastings when things turned dangerous and they called for help
“It came in that they fell through the ice. That wasn’t the case. They were actually busting the ice to cross the slough and it got deeper and deeper,” Price said. “They made a poor decision to continue instead of turn around and then it got deeper yet.” Initially, the water only surrounded their boots, but that changed once the pair waded further.
“They got wet a little bit and they looked back and it was so much farther backwards than forward, so they decided to go deeper,” Price said. “They ended up getting in to right around waist deep. Pre-hypothermia started setting in, their legs started cramping up, and that’s when they called 911.”
Firefighters arrived shortly after 9 a.m. and rescued the pair. The father and son were transported to Mercy Hospital in Council Bluffs where they were treated and released.