Let me introduce you to Mark and Karen Deremiah. They are amazing people who have spent their whole lives rescuing others. They have raised 12 children- six of them were adopted. Although Mark is now 68 and Karen 79, they still have a teenager at home and recently they rescued a little dog named Boy from the Animal Shelter.
On Saturday, June 22nd, Mark and Karen were at their old farmhouse. They had brought Boy along and he was playing in the yard while they worked outside. Suddenly, Mark heard the dog barking in distress! Boy had squeezed through a broken board under the porch and had fallen into an old well. Mark crawled under the porch and tried to get Boy out of the water, but couldn’t reach him. He got a hammer and started chipping away at the bricks around the well so that he might get close enough to rescue their drowning dog. When he still wasn’t able to reach Boy, Mark told Karen that if he went into the well, he wasn’t sure he could get back out. However, he ignored his own safety and went into the frigid 34 degree water. He was able to lift Boy to safety, but just as he feared he was not able to get himself out. Then the freezing water began to make his legs cramp. Fearing that Mark wouldn’t be able to hold on much longer, Karen found an old extension cord. She had Mark tie it around his waist and she tied the other end to a tree. She knew she had to get help! Although Karen is legally blind (as well as a serious heart condition), she hurried to their truck and managed to drive the short distance to her daughter’s home. Karen thought her daughter’s boyfriend Chris could help Mark out of the well. Chris called 911 while he rushed to the farm and attempted to pull Mark out with some rope, but he was unsuccessful. Mark had now been in the icy water for nearly 25 minutes. He was unable to talk and his eyes were closing. He had gone into shock. Time was running out for Mark.
The EMT’s arrived and Chris in his quick thinking had already taken a nearby saw and cut a hole in the porch floor so the EMT's could quickly pull Mark out of the water. He was lifeless and his skin was blue. He was not breathing and the EMT’s could not find a pulse. Mark needed help from specialists, so it was decided he had to be taken by helicopter to Carle Hospital in Urbana. With tears streaming down Karen’s face, she reached in to grab Mark’s hand one last time. At Carle, the doctors told his family that Mark had gone without oxygen for a significant period of time. They had to wait to see if Mark would survive his ordeal.
So you can image how grateful their family and friends were when they saw Mark was conscious and beginning to recover a few days later. He had lost his dentures, eyeglasses, and cell phone in the well, but they were a small price to pay for saving his dog’s life. Mark has always been a selfless man. It was not surprising that he would risk his life to save Boy.
Mark and Karen have only social security to depend on for their needs. We are asking for help to pay their medical bills and replace the items Mark lost in the well.
Thank you!
EDIT: If received funds should cover all medical expenses, recovery, and lost items, surplus funds will be donated to a local animal shelter.
