A Vermont state trooper plunged into a frigid pond to rescue an 8-year-old girl who had fallen through the ice, with the anxious moment being caught on bodycam.
Trooper Michelle Archer made the heroic save on December 17 when the little girl and her 6-year-old sister were playing at the pond near their home when the ice gave way, WCAX reports.
An elderly neighbor who saw the children in distress managed to help the younger sibling out of the water but wasn’t able to swim out to get the drowning girl.
Thankfully, Archer was on patrol nearby and rushed to the scene.
“There wasn’t a whole lot of thinking going on. Something was taking over — training. It was the opposite of panic,” the trooper told local outlet Vermont News First.
The video captured by Archer’s bodycam device shows the moment she ran into the icy cold water with a flotation device and a rope.
“Just like an adrenaline rush almost before you even get there, something that you know you have to get there as soon as you can.” she said to WCAX. “Something took over and I just kicked into gear. I don’t know if it was my training or instinct, but panic wasn’t a thought at that moment.”
Archer can be seen swimming out to the girl, grabbing her, and pulling her back to the shore in less than a minute.
The stressful video becomes relieving as the child sputters and coughs up water once safe on land, indicating that she was alive and breathing.
Fellow state trooper Keith Cote immediately performed life-saving first aid on the girl before she was rushed to the hospital, where she made a full recovery after several days of treatment.
Archer, Cote, and the property owner who aided in the rescue were commended by Vermont State Police, and all three received the state police’s Lifesaving Award for their heroic actions.