Father Dials 911, Gets Help to Revive Baby

A father who called police Sunday saying that his 16-month-old daughter had drowned was kept on the phone and given CPR instructions until the child began breathing again.

Fumiaki Fukui called 911 about 4:20 p.m. and said his daughter had been found on the bottom of the Jacuzzi and was not breathing, Sgt. Jack Davidson said.

Dispatcher Mike Phillips said Fukui was extremely upset when the call came in.

“The first thing I had to do was calm him down so he could listen to instructions on how to give CPR,” Phillips said.

Fukui shouted the instructions to a neighbor or relative, who administered the cardiopulmonary-resuscitation technique.

They went through that drill three times before the dispatcher heard the infant cry.

“When I heard the baby crying, I felt great. That’s what makes this job so worthwhile, “ Phillips said.

Fukui, he said, “listened real well to the instructions.”

Paramedics, meanwhile, rushed to the home on the 8500 block of Heil Avenue, Davidson said. They took the infant to Humana Hospital-Huntington Beach, where she was in stable condition.

So far this year, six people, five of them children, have drowned in swimming pools and hot tubs in Orange County. Drownings in the county last year, including those in bath tubs, took nine lives.