Rescued Wayzata Man Says Dog That Perished Was 'Only Companion'
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) - Ryan Neslund has been through more than one accident. Three years ago he was in a motor cross accident. He was paralyzed from the neck down. Wednesday night his life was in jeopardy again.
Neslund's truck broke through the ice of Lake Minnetonka around 8 p.m. Wednesday. He was heading out to his fishing shack.
Neslund, a Wayzata resident, was able to crawl to safety, but his yellow lab didn't make it. Neslund was released from the hospital late Thursday.
Neslund and his pup were no strangers to ice fishing; he lives by the lake and would fish night after night.
But on a lake with two feet of ice, he somehow drove over a spot with only two inches of ice, and he lost his best friend.
He shared the story of his ordeal with WCCO-TV:
"I was just driving and all of a sudden it appeared there wasn't much snow on the ice. I'm like, 'This is funny,' and before I even had a chance to react, my front end dove down down. I have ice chunks this big and water pouring, filling the truck in as fast as you can. I can't get out past that. I was trying to push out of the way, and I couldn't even budge. I gave it one last try and somehow I dragged myself up on the ice. I'm trying to look down. Is my dog coming? I'm hoping my dog swam out after me, but obviously he never did."
Neslund lay on the ice for 25 to 30 minutes until officers arrived. He screamed and a man smoking outside his house heard and called 911.
"Even if you don't have a disability, to be able to pull yourself out of the ice with waterlogged clothes, you have to be very determined," Lt. Kent Vnuk of Hennepin County Water Patrol said. "So the big thing is the will to live."
Neslund did live, but he lost four extra legs and one best friend.
"What am I going to miss?" he asked. "Everything. He was my life. He was my only companion."
The Hennepin County Water Patrol said it was a very dicey rescue for their team. Officers had to form a human chain to rescue Ryan.
Despite the recent below-zero temperatures, there are places in lake Minnetonka where the ice isn't even close to being safe enough for driving.
Officers hope people will remember any ice is unpredictable.
