He said he lost the feeling in some fingers but sensation had returned by Tuesday. Sergeant Thompson was treated for symptoms of hypothermia and released from a hospital Monday night.

He swished his arms and legs around before finding the boy beneath the ice, about 7.5 metres from the shoreline. When he went into the water, his toes brushed against reeds growing on the bottom of the pond and water reached his neck. 'As the ice got thicker, I couldn't break it with my arms and my fists anymore, so I had to jump up on top of the ice, putting my weight on it, and then pound on it to get it to break,' he said.

The deputy stomped to break through the ice and work his way deeper, pounding with his hands and fists.

( AP: Alex Cabrero/The Deseret News)Īfter arriving at the scene, Sergeant Thompson, who had served on a search and rescue dive team, began searching an area where a woman reported seeing the boy's hand flail about four minutes earlier. A boy fell into the pond in New Harmony, Utah, while chasing his dog.

Frozen arms of a hero