Happy Ending for Boy, Officer Turned Hero

Oxnard Officer Mike Robison thought last Saturday would be just another quiet morning on patrol.

But before noon, the 34-year-old cop had already helped saved a life, by performing CPR on a toddler found floating in a backyard pool.

“He deserves a lot of credit,” said Martin Gonzalez, father of Marcos, who will turn 2 later this month. “He helped save my child’s life. I want to thank him for what he has done.”

Marcos Gonzalez, who was without oxygen for nearly 20 minutes in the near-drowning, returned home from Santa Barbara’s Cottage Hospital on Monday with no sign of permanent damage.

“The child survived because the police officer and the boy’s father responded so quickly with CPR,” Dr. Ricardo Flores said. “The child looks like a million dollars.”

Gonzalez, busy working at his family’s garage sale, discovered his son was missing about 11 a.m. Saturday.

“I thought my wife had the baby and she thought I had the baby,” said Gonzalez, who has another young son and daughter. “I ran to the swimming pool and found him floating next to the corner.”

Gonzalez immediately administered CPR, which he said he learned from watching “Rescue 911” on television, but the child didn’t respond.

When Robison arrived minutes later, he found Marcos resting lifelessly on a towel in the backyard, his mother sobbing beside him.

The baby had no pulse and was not breathing, said Robison, who has two young sons of his own--ages 18 months and 3 years.

“He was a purplish-white and cold to the touch. All I could think of was that he looked just like one of my little boys.”

Robison performed CPR, but worried that Marcos was too far gone.

“Every time I blew into the baby, I could only hear a gurgling sound,” he said. “I thought, God, he’s just full of water.”

And although Robison could not get a pulse, he was relieved to see the child vomit out water.

Marcos didn’t show any signs of life until he was placed on a ventilator at St. John’s Regional Medical Center in Oxnard.

Humans usually die or are permanently brain-damaged if they are without oxygen for more than five minutes, but the cold pool water helped preserve Marcos’ vital organs, Dr. Flores said.

“The child’s brain went into a hibernated state, which requires less oxygen,” the doctor said.

Robison spent the rest of the day in a deep funk, not knowing whether the child would live.

“All I could think about was [Marcos’] brother walking up to me and saying, ‘He’s my only brother,’ ” Robison said.

But Marcos awoke Sunday morning with a big appetite and kissed his two parents. And on Monday, the little survivor was running around his house, playing with his dog, Snoopy.

“Miracles still exist,” his father said.