JONES COUNTY - Quick action by a father who knew C-P-R and icy water may both have played a role in allowing a two-year-old Jones County boy to survive a near drowning late Thursday.

Jones County authorities on Friday identified the victim as Kyle Laubengayer, 2, of 10675 Pauls Court in rural Anamosa. Hospital officials at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics listed the toddler’s condition as good Friday afternoon in spite of being underwater possibly as long as four or five minutes.

Jones County Chief Deputy Greg Graver said no one saw the two-year-old fall into the private pond at the bottom of a hill behind the home of Jill and Kevin Laubengayer. Kyle and an older sister were outside playing on a swing set when their father went inside to change clothes. The deputy said father Kevin Laubengayer told investigators he was probably inside no more than four or five minutes while the children continued playing outside.

But when Laubengayer returned outside, his young son wasn’t at the swing set any longer. Grayer said the father “looked down towards the pond and he could see what was described to us later as the coat trying to float to the surface.” The chief deputy said the father then “ran down, pulled the child out and began resuscitation on the child. He was yelling at a neighbor who was outside. The neighbor heard the yelling and contacted the sheriff’s office.”

Grayer said the father apparently knew C-P-R and had the two-year-old breathing by the time an ambulance arrived. But one emergency room physician said the cold water in the pond may also have played a role in what looks to be a favorable medical outcome.

Dr. Thomas Striegel, emergency room physician at St. Luke’s Hospital, said medicine recognizes something known as “mammalian diving reflex” can slow the heart of someone who is underwater. And due to that reflex, someone unconscious can remain underwater longer without oxygen and be brought back to life later.

Some medical evidence also suggests that cold water lengthens that “revival window” and young children may last even longer underwater without oxygen than adults and still recover.

“It did happen when the water was a little colder,” Dr. Striegel said adding “I also think even more even more importantly it emphasizes the point parents should be trained in C-P-R.”

Dr. Striegel said many emergency rooms now use cold temperatures to try and prevent damage to major organs like the heart and brain. One example is immediately chilling the bodies of patients having a heart attack to prevent tissue damage.

That, in part, is also what may have happened in the chilly pond near Anamosa when the two-year-old slipped under the water.

Jones County deputies said the older sister who was with her brother Thursday afternoon was under five years of age. Deputies talked to her later, but she apparently didn’t know what happened to her younger brother who nearly drowned.