The 10-year-old boy who died on Valentine's Day after falling through ice on a Tennessee pond was trying to save his sister, the family's pastor said.
About 11 a.m. Sunday, Shelby County and Millington firefighters and Shelby County sheriff’s deputies were called to a home in the 8000 block of Brunswick Road, according to officials.
They found a 10-year-old boy and his 6-year-old sister had fallen through a frozen pond at the home, which is just east of Millington, sheriff's office Lt. Dallas Wolfe said in a statement.
Both children were brought to Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital in nearby Memphis, where the boy was pronounced dead.
Leawood East Baptist Church Pastor Stacy Stilgenbauer told NBC News on Wednesday that the boy, Benjamin Luckett, was trying to help his 6-year-old sister, Abigail, out of the pond when he fell in, too.
Abigail was placed on a ventilator in the intensive care unit but was taken off the ventilator on Tuesday, according to updates posted by the church. She is on strong antibiotics to prevent infection from the pond water and is walking short distances with assistance.
According to the posts, Abigail's mom told her that her brother had passed when the child woke up. Abigail has three older brothers, Stilgenbauer said.
"They are a close knit, loving family. They spent a lot of time with each other," Stilgenbauer said.
At least 30 people have died in weather-related fatalities so far since Thursday, according to officials. A major winter storm is plowing across the country, delivering heavy snow, ice and temperatures so low they broke records in many places.
