Sister's smarts helps save trapped brother

COEUR D'ALENE, Idaho — It was a scream Mike Wimmer will never forget. And he still chokes with emotion when he describes his granddaughter Maya Hippenstiel as she charged up a hill in the backyard.

"She had this god-awful look of terror saying, 'Mason is drowning, Mason is drowning,'" he said.

Five-year-old Mason Crabtree was drowning, stuck in a well no one knew was there, hidden in weeds and tall grass at the bottom of a hill. It was a race to save him, one they would win, thanks to Maya.

The 7-year-old was sledding with her brother, as they had done many times before in their grandparents' yard, when they shot down the hill one more time last Sunday afternoon.

Suddenly, their plastic toboggan with a rope attached crashed and both kids flipped into a 2 foot by 2 foot concrete hole nearly filled with icy water.

"I got stuck in the well and I pushed myself out," Maya recalled as she sat next to her brother in their grandparents' living room. "Mason was still in there."

The boy, wearing boots and a snowsuit, slipped under water several times, but managed to pop back up, Maya said.

She feared by the time she ran to the house and got help, he might be under water. So she took the sled and wedged it into the hard, compacted snow. Once it was secure, she tossed the rope to Mason and told him to hold on.

Then, she ran toward the house.

"I was scared for Mason," she said. "I was screaming that he was drowning."

Her mom, Piper Wimmer, rushed out the back door.

"I saw Maya running up the hill just terrified. I knew something bad happened," she said.

Piper ran to Mason, still clinging to the rope, but she couldn't pull him out because his snowsuit was soaked by water. He was almost completely submerged.

"All that was showing was his face," she said.

Moments later, though, Mike Wimmer arrived and together, they yanked him free.

They estimated Mason was in the water about two to three minutes, and Maya probably less than a minute.

All were awed by Maya's response.

"Amazing for 7," said Cindi Wimmer, Maya's grandmother.

The girl's concern wasn't for herself, but Mason.

"She was saying, 'I'm OK. I'm a strong girl,'" Cindi said.