When a neighbor found 22-month-old Gardell Martin in the middle of a freezing Pennsylvania stream last week, it seemed impossible that he could survive.

Randall Beachel told BuzzFeed News that he and his wife had been searching for Martin after several kids in the Mifflinburg neighborhood ran by saying they couldn't find their brother.

It was the evening of March 11, and as Beachel and his wife split up along the riverbank, he had a feeling.

"I had the inkling to come back upstream about 50 yards," Beachel recalled.

Minutes later, Beachel saw Gardell's lifeless body, resting on an embankment in the middle of the stream. Beachel plunged in.

"It was cold enough that my feet kind of instantly froze and I could not feel them," he said. "They estimated afterward the water temperature was about 34."

Beachel carried Gardel out of the stream and soon was met by an ambulance. At the time, Gardell was cold and frozen. He had no pulse. And from his appearance, he looked like he had died.

"He was pretty much a lifeless baby," Beachel said.