Dog saved after falling through ice at Shawnee Mission Lake

JOHNSON COUNTY, Kan. (KCTV) - In this warmer weather, the authorities are warning about the dangers of going on ice and saying people should just stay off it.

Just yesterday, a 21-year-old man drowned after falling through the ice at Shawnee Mission Lake.

On Sunday, there was another incident involving a dog that had to be rescued after falling through the ice at the same lake.

“You see this huge brown dog sprinting across the ice water and it just drops,” said Kaitlyn Schneider, who witnessed the rescue.

It was a moment Schneider and others caught on camera. Then, the dog was stuck and struggling to get back to shore.

“Just terror,” Schneider said. “I was just so worried for that dog. He was probably treading water for three to five minutes.”

She said the dog’s owner wasn’t taking any action, but a bystander did.

“One of the people that was on the shore freaking out with me took his pants off immediately and dove in the water,” Schneider said.

You can see the man in the video. He quickly jumps into action, chopping through the ice until he finally reaches the dog and helps guide it back to shore.

“He came back to shore, and he was all bloody and cut up,” Schneider recalled.

The dog was safe and even had its tennis ball in its mouth.

Schneider and the other dog owners there were appreciative of the bystander’s heroic actions.

“I’m hoping that this reaches him, because he deserves the credit,” Schneider said. “All the credit in the world. That was very selfless, and I know that water was not warm.”

We had a chance to speak with the bystander, who we now know was David Hysom. We asked him about the rescue and why he decided to go in and help.

“He just had to get out of there,” Hysom said. “It was just a situation that you could tell he wasn’t going to make it. If you watched the video, you could see him-- his head start to go down a couple of times. The dog was not athletic at all. So, it was just one of those things I couldn’t imagine my dog being out there.”

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