Posted on 10/24/2008 7:15:55 AM PDT by Kimmers
Boone County - A toddler survived life-threatening moments because adults jumped into action with just seconds to spare.
It happened at a rural home west of I-65, near County Road 550 South in Boone County. The scene went from quiet to chaos in a matter of minutes when two-year-old Evan Pitcher nearly drowned in the family pool.
"Nothing could ever prepare you for seeing your own flesh and blood sitting there floating in a pool," said Eric Pitcher, Evan's father.
Evan and his father were playing outside when dad went in the garage to get a broom. He was gone just two minutes.
"And that's all it took," said Eric Pitcher. "As I got closer to the pool, I just seen him floating there. There was no ladder. He climbed the sides and got in on his own. It's a four-foot-tall pool. He's a two-year-old."
Pitcher dove in after his son, while a neighbor, hearing the parents' screams, called 911. Evan's mother Staci started CPR.
"He was lifeless. I thought he was dead. And I just kept pumping him and pumping him and breathing in his mouth," she said.
With their infant in their arms, still barely breathing, the family rushed Evan to the Boone County Sheriff's Department, where police, firefighters and medics laid the little boy out and immediately started working on him. Soon they heard the first signs of survival. Evan started to cough a bit on his own.
"It was kind of like oh my God, he's gonna be okay," said Eric.
Doctors at St. Vincent call Evan a "miracle baby." He's now breathing on his own and has no brain damage. Medics and police credit his mom's knowledge of CPR for saving the boy's life.
"It is so important for you to be able to rescue breathe for somebody, be able to give those chest compressions if you need to. And clearly, this shows it can make a difference," said Ken Campbell, Boone County Sheriff.
"I learned it as soon as I got pregnant and I knew I'd have little kids," said Staci.
"It was the right time, right place, right knowledge and right instincts," said Eric. "Grace of God. I mean grace of God!"
I would encourage all of us to learn CPR.......
“I would encourage all of us to learn CPR.......”
I agree. A loved one of mine went into cardiac arrest and nobody around her knew CPR. The odds of survival still would have been slim, but they would have been better than zero.
Absolutely...I love stories like this.God bless that family!
I once used the Heimlich maneuver on a friend who was choking on a piece of chicken.I was so glad I learned it.
Something very similar happened to our three year old son last month. He was unconscious, no heartbeat and blue when he was pulled out of the pool. Thanks be to God there was a nurse there who was able to perform CPR and save his life.
Oh my gosh! I am so sorry you had to go through that! I hope that he is O.K.?
He’s perfectly fine but had to spend a night in the hospital for observation.
The lady who noticed him underwater was a grandmotherly type, who according to her granddaughter, doesn’t like pools and obviously doesn’t swim. We noticed her right before we saw that our son was missing wading into the pool dressed in her regular street clothes. She hadn’t seen our son at that point. I guess she just wanted to get her feet wet. She saw what appeared to her to be a child not moving in the water. At first she thought it may have been a child just holding his breath underwater; but after a few seconds she became worried and pulled him out of the water by his feet. Needless to say, she, along with the nurse who performed CPR were his guardian angels that day.
Thank God ....... I cannot imagine the fear you went through......life is precious
Hug that little man of yours for me...
I attended a rather large birthday party at a pool. I had taken my nephew along otherwise I wouldn’t have been there. While everyone gathered on the terrace to do the cake thing my nephew wanted to stay in the pool. I sat watching him and just happened to look over and see a toddler go into the deep end. Odd how silent his fall was. Hardly any noise at all. I’ll never forget how long it seemed to take to get to that side of the pool.. then looking down into the water and seeing him wide-eyed looking up at me.
It happens just that fast.. and quietly.
I’m so glad you had a happy ending.
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