Survival Show Helps Save Boys' Lives

Jan. 22, 2008 — -- Sam Sejan's parents now may have second thoughts before telling the grade schooler to turn off the TV, after a recent show saved his life and two friends when they plunged through a frozen pond.

Sam and his friend Jerome Chalson were playing with a third pal on a frozen pond in Binghamton, N.Y., this weekend when the ice beneath them suddenly gave way.

"It didn't crack. We just fell through. We didn't hear a sound," Sam said.

The blistering cold temperatures could have spelled tragedy for the boys, who were fully clothed and up to their necks in frigid water.

"It was just very scary, like I was going to die," Jerome said.

As the boys yelled for help, Sam recalled an episode of the Discovery Channel's "Man vs. Wild," a survivalist show where host Bear Grylls strands himself in wilderness destinations where tourists often find themselves in danger.

In the show Sam learned he should remove his wet clothes and move quickly to avoid hypothermia if he ever fell through ice.

"I remembered that and I did the exact same thing," Sam said.

Then Sam, whose body was scratched and bleeding from ice, ran for help. Emergency responders saved the three boys.

"I couldn't even imagine what we could have been facing right now," said Sam's mother, Christine Sejan.

The boys sustained no serious injuries and all have returned to school, but they said they won't go back on the ice any time soon.