COLES COUNTY, Ill. (WAND) - As 68-year-old Mark Deremiah recalled, it all started while tidying up for a 4th of July family get-together.

"We were cleaning around the house,” he shared. “We took our 9-year-old dog with us, Boy, and he got underneath the back porch somehow. There was an old well that was supposed to be covered up, and Boy fell into the well about 10 feet down into some really cold water."

The 9-year-old rescue dog was greeted by 34-degree water. Deremiah didn't know how cold the water would be when rescuing Boy, but in the moment, there was no time for thinking - just action.

"I just grabbed a sledgehammer I had nearby and broke some of the bricks off on the side of the well,” Deremiah recalled. “I backed in and down. I did the 'Spider-Man' with my back and my legs and went down there and got him and inched my way back up to the top."

But then, Deremiah was the one trapped in the well.

"Next thing I know I woke up in Urbana at Carle Clinic. I guess I passed out and had hypothermia. My heart quit,” said Deremiah. “They had to find the biggest guy they could to jump up and down on my throat or chest. That's what it felt like. It was sore."

Doctors expected Deremiah to wake up two to three days later with brain damage. Miraculously, he woke up after only 12 hours and was fine.

"My first helicopter ride, and I missed it," he joked. 

Even after the whole ordeal, Deremiah said he would do it again.

“I'm here, dog's here, everybody's fine, so it had a happy outcome," he said.

Deremiah insists he wasn't the only hero that day either. He wants to thank the local first responders, paramedics and doctors that worked to save his life too. He’s also thankful for everyone who has reached out to him with “well-wishes” and messages of healing.

Deremiah and his wife, Karen, have a dozen children. Seven of their kids are adopted, so it only makes sense that they opened their hearts and home to Boy the dog earlier this year.

Deremiah has incurred thousands of dollars in medical bills since rescuing Boy. Anyone who wants to help can find a Go Fund Me here.