Boy, 11, Revived After Almost Drowning in Spa

An 11-year-old Stanton boy was rescued from the bottom of a back-yard spa and revived Friday by a friend’s mother who said she learned CPR from watching television.

The boy, Jacob Sawyer, was playing a game with a friend, Sterling Silva, also 11, in the Jacuzzi at the back of Sterling’s house in the 500 block of South Bruce Street when the freak accident happened shortly before 11:30 a.m.

Authorities said Jacob was holding his breath underwater when he became trapped at the bottom of the spa by the suction from the drainage system.

Sterling ran to get his mother, Rosalyn Silva, 42, who found Jacob stuck on the bottom and unable to move. By the time she pulled him free, Jacob was not breathing and had no pulse, she said.

With paramedics en route, Silva was able to revive Jacob with cardiopulmonary resuscitation.

“All I could see was his blue face,” she said. “I don’t know CPR, but I watch (the television show) ‘Rescue 911’ a lot. So, I did what I saw them do and thank God it worked.”

Jacob was taken to Humana Hospital-West Anaheim, where he was treated and later released, a hospital official said.