Week in Review : MAJOR EVENTS, IMAGES AND PEOPLE IN ORANGE COUNTY NEWS : MISCELLANY/ NEWSMAKERS AND MILESTONES
A cool-headed Santa Ana police dispatcher talked a 2-year-old girl’s panicked father through steps that saved his daughter’s life after she was pulled unconscious from a family swimming pool last Sunday.
Beth Frank, a Santa Ana dispatcher since 1984, calmly instructed Bruce Iacovino how to get water out of Regina’s lungs and begin mouth-to-mouth resuscitation while police and paramedics were on their way.
Iacovino relayed the instructions to his son-in-law, who was trying to revive Regina.
Frank gave instructions to “tilt the head back. Blow into its mouth. But don’t blow real hard. Just blow into its mouth and get some air into its lungs,” according to a transcript of the emergency call to 911.
Moments later, Iacovino exclaimed: “Her eyes opened!” And as a police officer arrived at the front door, Iacovino told the dispatcher: “She’s clenching her fists. Oh, Jesus. . . . She’s clenching her fists and she’s blinking her eyes. . . . Oh, she’s crying!”
Regina spent the night at a hospital but was feeling fine by Monday, her mother said.
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