(Fox8.com)
A man is being credited with saving the life of his three-year-old son after climbing in a well to save him on Friday night.
Jake McCoy, of Stark County, Ohio, was at his home when his father had discovered that Jake’s son, Dylan, had fallen into the well.
McCoy, 28, explained that the rotting plywood on top of the well gave way when Dylan was jumping on it. He told Fox 8 News that he knew he had to react quickly to save his son when he saw him 40-feet down, struggling to keep his head above the 10-feet of water in the well.
McCoy and his father first tried to lower a ladder into the well but when that didn’t work, he decided to climb down the rock walls of the well from 1886.
“I just told [Dylan] to calm down. Told him ‘it’s going to be all right.’ That ‘daddy’s coming, stop crying, it’s going to be okay,’” McCoy told Fox 8 News.
Once McCoy reached Dylan and brought him to the side of the well where there was a ladder, father and son were then stuck at the bottom.
“My heart was down there with [Dylan], I didn’t know what to do… I didn’t know what to think,” Ashley McCoy, his mother, told Fox 8 News.
Firefighters from Canton Township came and used ropes to pull Dylan to safety. Jake climbed out on his own.
The family predicts the outcome would have been different had Dylan not learned to swim this summer.
“It’s amazing what you can do if your son or your daughter is strapped in a well, screaming your name,” said McCoy. “You’d pretty much do anything.”
The family has plans to put a concrete slab over the well.
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