A toddler nearly drowned in a hotel pool; nurses staying there for a convention saved him
LIVONIA, Michigan — Two off-duty nurses, a 9-year-old girl and her godmother are being hailed as heroes after they saved a toddler who nearly drowned in a hotel pool.
Police in Livonia on Wednesday posted video of the terrifying January 24 incident on their Facebook page.
There were about a dozen people around the 2-year-old boy in the video, but they didn’t realize he had gone under water, according to police.
“He’s trying to swim. He’s trying to get in a position to get upright. There’s a lot of people playing. I think he gets lost in the confusion,” Livonia Police Capt. Ron Taig told ABC affiliate WXYZ, describing frames from the video that appear to show the boy fighting to get to the surface.
The 9-year-old girl saw the boy lying motionless at the bottom of the pool and alerted her godmother, who told other people to call 911 as she jumped in to save the little boy, according to the post. A sign in the pool area warned that no lifeguard was on duty.
The boy was underwater for about four minutes, according to the time code on the video.
Two off-duty nurses performed CPR on the child and were able to revive him, according to police. WXYZ reported the nurses were staying at the Holiday Inn Express for a nursing convention.
“It gives you goosebumps when you see these nurses working on this child. They did multiple rounds of CPR to bring him back,” Taig told WXYZ.
The child was taken to the hospital and treated and released the same day.
Police investigated the incident and have turned the case over to the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office. A spokeswoman for the office said the case is under review and no charging decisions have been made.
The police department said it released the video to remind people about the dangers of drowning and to remind parents to monitor their children in the water.
The National Drowning Prevention Alliance says that drowning is the number one cause of accidental deaths for children between 1-4 years old and that 88% of child drownings occur when at least one adult is present.
The four people who saved the little boy have been nominated for the Livonia Police Department Exceptional Service Award, which is the department’s highest civilian honor.
