
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, July 3, 1993                   TAG: 9307030238
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: LARRY W. BROWN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BEDFORD                                LENGTH: Short

BOY SURVIVES PLUNGE INTO 100-FOOT WELL

What could have been a nightmare turned into a miracle Friday after a father climbed down a 100-foot well to rescue his son.

Michael March said his 6-year-old son Jeremiah fell down the well about 5:30 p.m., just hours after the family arrived in Moneta to visit friends. The family is from Gaithersburg, Md., but is planning to move to Bedford County.

"That well is solid rock," March said. "It was a horrible, horrible drop."

March said he found out his son had fallen in when his fiancee began screaming. "I ran around the house and just climbed," he said.

His son had fallen into water over his head and could not swim, March said. He rescued his son, who had been in the water about 2 1/2 minutes, and climbed back out just as the rescue squad arrived.

March said the child was still breathing when rescued - he had pulled and propped himself up on rocks along the wall of the well - and suffered only minor cuts and bruises.

"He didn't say much," March said. "Mostly the water scared him."

"God's watching over him," said March, who was celebrating his 46th birthday Friday. "I'm more shaken up than he is."

by CNB