BOSTON -- A 10-year-old boy who fell through ice while chasing his dog across a frozen lake and survived nearly two hours in the frigid waters died Sunday night at Massachusetts General Hospital, a spokesman said.
Jeffrey Goodale had been pulled from Lake Tashmoo on the resort island of Martha's Vineyard off the Massachusetts coast early Saturday afternoon and flown by Coast Guard helicopter to Boston where doctors worked for more than 24 hours to restore his temperature and heartbeat.
He died shortly before 11 p.m. EST, the spokesman said.
'His chances were always very remote,' said spokesman Martin Bander, who said Jeffrey lost consciousness Sunday evening. 'But earlier this evening it became apparent there was no longer even a remote chance.'
'It is unlikely that anyone has ever survived anywhere near the length of time under water that Jeffrey spent,' he said.
Bander said members of his family were with the boy when he died.
An autopsy will be performed by the state medical examiner's office to determine the exact cause of death, he said.
Goodale, of Vineyard Haven, was plucked from the lake the same day as the burial of an Ohio boy who died two days after falling in an icy pond.
The temperature was 28 degrees at Martha's Vineyard and the lake water was 40 degrees, Coast Guard Lt. Bruce Viekman said.
Goodale, who still had a pulse when rescuers pulled him up, was put into a hypothermia suit and rushed to Martha's Vineyard Hospital, where his temperature was so low it could not be measured.
'They had no thermometer that went that low,' Viekman said.
After doctors warmed the boy with blood transfusions he was carried to the helicopter, where his temperature was registered at 78 degrees, Coast Guard Chief John Mauro said.
'As far as we know it was below 78 but we don't know how far below,' Mauro said.
Goodale was attached to a heart-lung machine at MGH until his body temperature was raised to nearly normal, Bander said. 'While he was on the machine doctors massaged his heart because the rate was so slow there was virtually no heart beat.'
Bander said the boy's heart beat had been restored to 'a more normal one.'
'His parents have been at or near the hospital since he was brought here,' Bander said.
Fire Department, police and Coast Guard divers plunged repeatedly into the lake in search of the boy, who apparently was chasing his dog when he fell through the inch-thick ice at about 11:15 a.m., state police trooper Richard Kelley said.
'The thought is maybe the dog went out there and he followed him,' Kelley said.
'A neighbor who lived near the shore heard a boy scream and went out to investigate ... He could only see a boy's gloves on the ice and immediately called for help,' he said.
'We are all saying our prayers,' Kelley said.
The boy walked about 200 feet before breaking through the ice and plunging into water 10 feet deep, officials said.
Viekman said the rescuers, using several small boats and a helicopter, searched the water for about one hour and 45 minutes before spotting the boy.
'We don't know if he was getting any air while he was under the ice,' Viekman said. 'The police used small boats to break up the ice and the wind from the helicopter blades was used to sweep it aside,' Viekman said.
The rescue operation came on the same day as the burial of Jeremy Ghiloni, 9, of Newark, Ohio, who survived two days in a drug-induced coma after being dragged from an ice-covered pond some 40 minutes after he fell in.
Jeremy died Thursday without regaining consciousness. Doctors put him in a drug-induced coma to prevent brain damage but he never regained consciousness.
