Hero risks life and limb to rescue man from drowning
Published: March 14, 2007
A man - and his two golden retrievers - has been hailed a hero after plunging into a frozen harbour to rescue a New Yorker who had fallen through the ice.
But for modest Neil Maycock, 40, his impulsive bravery was simply payback for the time he was saved from drowning as a three-year-old in Wales by a passer-by and his dog.
Neil was strolling on the beach at Centerport Harbor, Long Island just after 3pm on February 25 when the drama happened.
He was with his sons, Harry, 10, and seven-year-old Sam, and their dogs Alfie and Gus, when they heard a woman screaming after seeing Michael Johnson fall through the ice.
Speaking during a business trip to Los Angeles, Neil told The Chronicle: “If I had thought about it a little bit more, I probably wouldn’t have done anything. It was just instinct.”
But as 23-year-old Mr Johnson, who lives in Centerport, began slipping beneath the surface, Neil jumped in to push aside the huge sheets of ice and grab the drowning man’s right forearm.
Incredibly the dogs, Alfie, aged five, and Gus, who is just a year old, leapt in alongside him to help.
Alfie swam to the left and Mr Johnson was able to clasp his free hand around the dog’s back as the trio headed for the shore.
Neil said: “For a moment, I thought I wasn’t going to get back. It all happened so quickly but three minutes seemed a very long time.”
Mr Johnson was treated at nearby Huntington Hospital for severe hypothermia, and Neil suffered cuts to his hands from the sharp pieces of ice. But for Neil, who lives with wife Linda, 37, and their family two miles from the harbour, the experience uncannily mirrored his own experience as a youngster.
He said: “I got washed into the sea by a wave and went right under the water. I remember grabbing onto something and it was a Labrador dog which had come to my rescue with its owner.
“The similarity is extraordinary.” Neil has temporarily become a media star on Long Island, and sister-in-law Donna Chilvers, who lives in Tanners Close, Burghfield Common, said: “Our family has always spoken about him nearly drowning when he was young and for this to happen is quite remarkable.
“But it didn’t surprise me when I heard what had happened because he is a very giving person. I’m very proud of him.”
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