Heart-stopping body camera footage caught the moment emergency crews in Kansas desperately tried to rescue a toddler who had fallen down a deep narrow PVC pipe in his yard.
The 14-month-old boy named Bentley had been playing in his front yard when he plummeted into the 10 to 12-feet deep sump pump drain just before 2pm on Sunday, according to Moundridge police.
He was then stuck underground in the hole that was just one foot in diameter for more than 20 minutes as EMS crews tried to figure out how to get him out.
‘It was so stressful and traumatic honestly, and it felt like the longest 25 minutes of my life,’ the boy’s mother, Elizabeth, told KAKE.
She said she had been watching her two children run around in the front yard that afternoon, and was nearby when Bentley walked over the cover to the drain.
It had been moved the tiniest bit off of the hole, Elizabeth said, and when Bentley stepped on it, he fell right in front of her eyes.
‘When he stepped on it, it flipped,’ she recounted. ‘He fell so fast, I couldn’t grab him.’
‘I automatically just screamed and screamed.’
Those screams caught the attention of her husband, Blake, who was working on a car in the nearby driveway.
‘My wife screamed that horrible scream,’ he said.
‘I was with her when he gave birth to two babies and this is the scream you never want to hear because you know something treacherous has happened.’
He later told KWCH that he couldn’t imagine what his wife thought when she saw Bentley fall ‘because for all she knew it was a sewer line, it was full of water, or it was 50 feet deep. She had no idea.’
The parents frantically called 911 and said officers arrived to their home within five minutes.
They then found that the boy landed upright on his feet.
At first, EMS crews tried to save the boy with just a rope.
‘The problem is that a 14-month-old child does not handle commands very well,’ said Assistant Fire Chief Shawn Stucky.
‘The child fought us and took the rope away from his body, where it needed to be.’
Rookie officer Ronnie Wagner, who has only been with the department for one month, then came up with the idea to fashion a makeshift 16-foot-long catch pole out of a smaller PVC pipe and rope from the local fire department.
He then tied a circle lasso at one end, piped it down and fished it around the boy’s upper body.
They were then able to pull Bentley to safety and were seen putting the mud-covered child back in his father’s hands.
If that hadn’t worked, Wagner said they ‘would’ve had to start digging, bring in some equipment and start digging a really big hole in the front yard and dig him out, which would’ve been time-consuming.’
Meanwhile, the young boy kept crying and screaming throughout the ordeal, as his parents were heard trying to reassure him.
‘We’re gonna get you out Bentley, it’s OK,’ his father Blake said, as he looked down the deep hole while holding his other son’s hand.
‘Momma’s right here. We’re gonna get you out. It’s OK,’ Bentley’s mother, Elizabeth, said as she held back tears.
But, they said, they were actually horrified and stressed as officers tried to pull their son to safety.
‘It’s horrifying,’ Blake told KSNW. ‘It’s haunting to feel so helpless knowing that your child is in serious need of help.
‘Looking down at him, he was screaming, he wanted out of there, he wanted help, and you can’t do anything. It’s just complete helplessness.’
The family now says they are grateful to first responders who saved their son.
‘We believe it is nothing short of a miracle that a baby can fall [into] something that is five times his height and come out entirely unscathed,’ Blake said.
He and his wife say they now plan to bolt the cover down so noting can move it.
They said it is too heavy for a toddler to move, but it must have gotten pushed when mowing the lawn.
The terrifying ordeal is reminiscent of when Jessica McClure fell 22 feet below ground in a well in October 1987.
Her plight captivated an immense television audience, as Baby Jessica sang about Winnie the Pooh.
Millions tuned in and prayed for her safety as they watched dozens of rescuers working night and day to save her from inside an abandoned well.
During the ordeal, kind-hearted viewers also donated money to help the little girl recover.
Jessica has since said in the past that she has little memory of being wedged in the pipe or of the 15 operations that followed her ordeal.
A scar from her hairline to the bridge of her nose is still visible however where her head rubbed against the wall of the well.
Jessica also lost a toe to gangrene because one leg was pinned above her head in the underground shaft.