You deserve good things
When 5-year- old John Pulk tumbled into a drainage ditch full of fast-moving, freezing water, his 8-yearold sister, Madi, risked her own life to save his!
“Stay on this side of the road,” Heidi Pulk told her kids, Madi, 8, Emily, 7, and 5-yearold twins, John and Henry, as she and her eldest daughter, Sarah, carried groceries from the car inside the house. The family had just moved into the Strathcona, Minnesota, farmhouse, and what Heidi hadn’t realized was that the drainage ditch bordering their property, which had always been dry, was now filled to overflowing due to snow run-off from a warm spell.
Spotting large chunks of ice floating downstream, John and Henry began poking at them with large sticks, pretending to fish.
“Stay away from the edge!” Madi warned.
But as John took a step back, the soggy ground collapsed and he tumbled into the swiftrunning water.
“No!” Madi gasped. And without a moment’s hesitation, she called “I’m coming!” and plunged into the icy gulley. But the current was strong, and as she fought to swim after her brother, he was dragged further downstream.
“Get Mom!” Madi cried as she scrambled out of the water and began running down the road, scanning the water for her brother. Her stomach lurched when she spotted John floating facedown in the frigid water.
Her heart pounding, Madi dove back into the freezing snow melt, and though her arms and legs ached, she kept swimming and somehow managed to reach John. Snagging his parka hood, she slowly pulled him to the edge of the ditch and up onto shore.
But John’s lips were blue. He wasn’t breathing!
Madi had never taken a CPR class, but she and her mom always watched Grey’s Anatomy together. And when the church where Heidi works received a grant for a defibrillator, Madi had peeked in on the training sessions.
Taking a deep breath, Madi placed the heel of one hand on her brother’s breast bone and began pushing on his chest with all her might. Once, twice, three times. Then she leaned forward and pressed her face to his to blow in a breath. Just then, their mom ran up. “He’s making bubbles!” Madi panted as Heidi scampered over a nearby snowbank. And after a few more compressions, John coughed up water and started moaning.
“Please hurry!” Heidi begged the 911 dispatcher, but thanks to Madi, her little boy had started breathing on his own.
After a few hours of observation at the hospital, doctors gave John a clean bill of health and released him with antibiotics to prevent possible pneumonia due to having had water in his lungs.
“I remember falling in, but then everything got dark,” he told his mom. Later he gave Madi a big hug. “You’re my favorite sister,” he declared, paused, then added, “Don’t tell the others.”
“Madi is our little hero,” says proud mom Heidi. “She was so brave and acted so quickly— John never would have made it without her.”
“He’s my little brother, and I love him,” Madi explains. “I could never let anything bad happen to him.”