Girl Pulls Baby Brother Out of Pool’s Deep End

An 11-year-old girl dived into a swimming pool Wednesday afternoon to save her flailing 18-month-old brother, marking the second time in two days that an Orange County youngster was credited with rescuing a younger child in danger of drowning.

Sixth-grader Eileen Kaveney said she heard the screams of her brother, Jacob, through her bedroom window about 1 p.m. and raced outside. She found him struggling to keep his head above water in the pool’s deep end. While the family had been preparing for an outing to the city library, the toddler apparently had gone outside and made his way past an unlocked backyard gate, family members said.

When she spotted Jacob, Eileen called out to her mother and dived into the pool, fishing out the toddler, who was conscious but had ragged breathing and blue lips, Fullerton Fire Capt. Dave Duncan said. Jacob was rushed to St. Jude Medical Center in Fullerton, and was later released.

“Another few minutes and the boy could have been dead, no doubt about it,” Duncan said. “Eileen sort of blew the whole thing off, like it was no big deal. Personally, I’d call her a hero.”

By dinner time Wednesday, the young hero was already weary of recounting the story. “I didn’t really think about it. I just did it. That’s all there is, really.”

The St. Mary’s School student is the eldest of five children and, like three of her siblings, is an avid swimmer who often competes in a city recreation program, according to her mother, Monica Kaveney. “And little Jake loves the water too,” Kaveney said Wednesday afternoon. “That’s the problem.”

Eileen’s story had a familiar ring. On Tuesday, another Orange County girl was in the spotlight for quick action and a cool head. Nine-year-old Melissa Bianco of Irvine helped pull a toddler from a community pool and, according to her family, administered CPR to save 2-year-old Loren Nguyen.

An Orange County Fire Authority official said Wednesday that there is some contradiction among the witness accounts of Melissa’s role in the rescue and the amount of danger the toddler was in. Still, the girl deserves praise for her calm action, said Capt. Scott Brown of the Orange County Fire Authority.

Brown said people who know cardiopulmonary resuscitation and quick alerting of emergency services are the first two links in “the chain of survival” for victims of near-drowning. He said people interested in learning CPR can get class information by calling (714) 744-0496.

Drowning is the leading cause of death for Orange County children from ages 1 to 4, and most incidents occur in the summer months, Brown said. Also, California leads the nation in child drownings, he said. “And every one of those deaths was 100% preventable.”

Duncan said he will ask young Eileen to speak at a new water safety program the city hopes to launch in August, and he invited residents interested in having pool safety inspections or more information about preventing child drownings to call (714) 738-6500.

“The main lesson is to know where your kid is,” Duncan said. “You need to know at all times, and not just with pools, but with lakes, hot tubs, even bathtubs. Kids move a mile a minute and it’s tough to keep up with them, so you need to have an eye on them.”