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Yao Xiang's Icy Adventure
The ZATMA.org Staff
It was 15¼ F. - but pleasant - on the morning in April that sixty-two year old Reverend Yao Xiang, our man in Anchorage, went out for a walk with his dog Sable - an Alaskan Husky-Australian Cattle mix that he had rescued from severe abuse when she was an abandoned pup.
Our Dharma Brother Yao Xiang and Sable, his faithful dog.
There's a dog run reserved in one area of University Lake and he thought he'd let Sable get frisky on the ice. But dogs are sometimes smarter than the rest of us. His didn't want to risk it. The lake was deep and the ice was thin. A beaver seemed to be embedded in the ice, and Shi Yao Xiang, being a man who truly cares about animals, ventured out to see what could be done. The ice broke and as he fell backwards, he struck his head. Unconscious, he sank down, disappearing from view. His wool jacket and scarf absorbed water; and between the decreased buoyancy of the icy water and the current which pulled him farther beneath the ice, he was in deep trouble. He did not hear Sable barking frantically on the shoreline or see Mr. Eric Nordquist, a quick-thinking visitor to the dog park, break a branch from a tree and inch his way onto the ice. He also did not know that Sable had alerted a woman who immediately called 9-1-1.
In Yao Xiang's own words, "I can't remember the actual plunge, but I do recall waking up to find myself under water, going down - my feet still had not touched bottom - and feeling an undertow pull me under the ice shelf. I looked up to "fathom" the lightest spot under the shelf where I could come through. I swam upwards in full winter clothing, and then I broke through the surface. It was 10:00 a.m., Monday, 4th April."
Nordquist and another man succeeded in pulling him out and getting him onto his feet. Yao Xiang continues, "Soaked and hypothermic, I walked three hundred yards to the Paramedics; but after that, I have no recall except coming to in the Emergency room. There was blood on my glasses." He was treated for severe hypothermia and a concussion.
He speaks about the incident with "military" matter-of-fact casualness. Yao Xiang, a native of Wales, was a champion swimmer and eventually joined the Royal Navy as a "Surface Swimmer" whose mission was to assist Navy scuba divers who were having difficulty making their assent. Being underwater and swimming in adverse conditions are built into him. Maintaining a Zen cool is also part of his nature.
The actual hole in the ice after Yao Xiang fell through.
Reflecting on his experience, he says, "An odd thing is that while I was under the frigid water I felt no air starvation, in fact, it felt pretty good. The cold as such was a gradual seepage into clothing and wasn't so bad either. I was lucky. Many people didn't make it this year, given the same predicament. Some cases that didn't make it involved alcohol and snowmobiles."
Reverend Yao Xiang oversees rehabilitations at a drug and alcohol recovery program and is active in animal rescue services. "I see dogs as saints on four legs and the most stunning truths about a dog's loyalty is found in Lord Byron's "Epitaph to a Dog." My wife Mariah weeps when I read it." But he's not sentimental when it comes to protecting animals. He's as tough with his charges as he is underwater. We still cherish an old email he sent when he first started to take care of the lacerated and insect ridden puppy that authorities had deemed "unable to be socialized" because she was so terrified of humans. "Currently," he wrote, "I have been nursing a sad and sick Husky mix, all white fur, beautiful wee thing and very endearing. Lots of endless Tender Loving Care and reassurance for this gentlest of sentient beings. She, 'Sable,' is coming along slowly but nicely with beef burgers and home-made dog biscuits from dog recipes. I'd like to see whoever abused this wee dog try to mess with my beloved Wolves."
Not too many people would try.
