Aenard Johnson saved Rudolph T. Rice from suffocation, Whitefish, Montana, December 12, 1962. Rice, 23, farm laborer, entered a well 20 feet deep and three feet in diameter from which water was being removed by means of a gasoline-powered pump suspended in the well through a 15-inch opening in its top. Rice was overcome by carbon monoxide gas and lay in water three feet deep with one foot caught on metal rungs in the wall and with his shoulders against the opposite side of the well, his face just above the water. His father, who was recuperating from an operation, shut off the pump and summoned Johnson, 55, farmer, from a neighboring farm. Johnson tied a rope around his waist and with the other end secured atop the well lowered himself through the opening. He took with him one end of a second rope and with some difficulty due to pipes and the pump inside the well descended on a pipe which extended to the bottom. At the water level he stood on a metal rung, held to the pipe, and leaned downward. He lifted Rice, tied the end of the rope around him, and looped part of it around a rung to hold him out of the water until additional help arrived to aid in pulling him up. When Rice’s father and two other men began pulling on the rope, Johnson removed the line from himself and also tied it around Rice. From below Johnson pushed and guided Rice upward, once freeing him when he became stuck, as the three men pulled on both ropes and drew Rice out of the well. Johnson climbed out unaided. Rice was hospitalized and recovered.
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