Drowning toddler rescued by park hero

Thursday 02 July 2015

An eyewitness has praised a "hero" who saved a little boy who was dragged lifeless from the padding pool in Millbrook Park.

The two-year-old was found floating in the shallow water on Tuesday morning when the woman leapt into action and performed CPR on him until paramedics arrived.

The park wasn't busy when the accident happened at about 10.30 am but the witness - who didn't want to be named - said that everyone there was shaking when they realised how serious it could have been. The Health department have since confirmed that the young boy was treated and discharged from the hospital the same day.

The witness, who was there with her own children, said: "My little girl was in the pool with another little boy, we didn't see initially what happened because we were focused on our children but we were sitting next to the lady who saved him and basically there was a lot of commotion at the end of the pool.

"She jumped up and ran over and the next thing we saw he was on the side of the pool, lifeless, they put him on his side to revive him and she started doing CPR on him immediately and everyone was saying 'has anyone called the ambulance' and she just carried on, she was amazing, she didn't give up, she just carried on and he just started screaming.

"We were all very emotional and then we heard the ambulance. She wrapped him in a towel and kept patting him on his back and then the ambulance man came and she gave the little boy to him but she was shaking afterwards, we were all shaking.

"Another lady who I think was a nanny had seen the little boy floating in the pool, no-one knew whether he had fallen in or what, what actually happened but it was such a massive eye-opener because I don't think I'd have known what to do, it's really scary but it's so shallow and you don't expect it, in a paddling pool like that you wouldn't expect it."

She said she's now looking at doing a course in First Aid and a number of mums have said on social media that they are keen to sign up too so that they'll know what to do if anything like this happens again.

You can find out more about lifesaving courses run by the local branch of the St John Ambulance here.

The police are looking into what happened, but have stressed that there is no criminal investigation going on. They would like to hear from anyone who saw the events of Tuesday morning, and have asked that anyone with any information call them on 612612, or contact Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555111.