Child Pulled From Pool, Saved by CPR

Geoff Carroll had never performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation before, but when a toddler was pulled from a pool unconscious and blue Wednesday at a home where Carroll was working, the 28-year-old plumber just did what he had seen on television.

His quick actions may have saved little Kyle Deebs’ life, fire officials said.

The boy had been riding a plastic bike with training wheels in the pool area of his aunt’s home in the 500 block of Dirk Circle when he apparently rode too close to the deep end and fell in about 9 a.m., Orange County Fire Authority spokeswoman Maria Sabol said.

Carroll, of Huntington Beach, said had just finished a job at the house when he heard screams. By the time he reached the back of the house, Kyle’s mother had retrieved the boy from the pool bottom and was holding him close to the pool’s edge, unable to lift him out or get out herself.

“When I pulled him out of the water, he was blue,” Carroll said. “His lips were purple. His hands and feet were purple.”

Carroll said he “grabbed the child from her arms, laid him on the concrete, and basically performed mouth to mouth. I was pumping the chest and abdomen softly, and each time I did it water would come out of his mouth and nose.

“I knew he needed air, so I would pinch his nose and breathe in his mouth. After about a minute he started to breathe, and then he started to cry.”

Sabol said Carroll told authorities he had only seen emergency CPR procedures on television and simply imitated them as best he could.

“I’m sure I made a lot of mistakes,” said Carroll, who was elated when he heard the child cry. “Oh wow, that was a relief. I didn’t want to be around if he didn’t make it.”

By evening, Deebs was resting comfortably at Children’s Hospital of Orange County, where Carroll met him for a happy reunion.

“He’s fine. He’s feisty,” Carroll said. “You can just tell, he’s going to be all right.”

Sabol said the incident should serve as a warning. Drowning is the leading cause of accidental death among children under 5 in the county, she said.

“You need to have layers of protection,” Sabol said. “The most significant and important one is to have a fence around the pool, at least 5 feet high, with a self-closing and self-latching gate that opens outward, away from the pool.”

Doors and windows leading to the pool should be closed and locked, and homeowners can also add motion detection devices and pool covers, she said. Constant vigilance is also key, even if children are playing with many adults nearby. In such cases, Sabol said, an adult should be specifically assigned to watch the children.

“Drowning happens very quickly, without a splash and without a cry,” she said.