Citizens Honored for Saving Girl’s Life

A group of citizens, Fire Department personnel and emergency medical workers who saved the life of a 10-year-old girl last month were honored Friday at a ceremony at Los Angeles Fire Station 87 in Granada Hills.

Peggy Young of Sylmar, a pediatric nurse at Olive View-UCLA Medical Center, was given special recognition for performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation on Arlette Hardy moments after she was pulled unconscious from a neighbor’s pool during a birthday party.

The date of the incident, July 13, is also Young’s birthday.

“It was a good day to keep someone alive instead of letting them go to heaven too early,” said Young, who had attended the neighbor’s party with her 10-year-old daughter.

As the party drew to a close Arlette and one other girl were still in the pool. Phil Rivera, who was hosting the party with his wife, Cil, and watching the girls, turned away to get an ice cream cone. At the same moment Arlette lost hold of an inflated raft in the deep end and quickly sank to the bottom.

Alerted by the other girl, Rivera dived into the pool and pulled Arlette out. At that point Young took over.

“She was not responsive,” Young said. “Her color was blue and she was not breathing. We worked on her for less than a minute and she woke up screaming. That’s when we knew she was going to be OK.”

In addition to Young and Phil Rivera, Cil Rivera was also praised for dialing 911, and several emergency and medical workers were credited with contributing to Arlette’s rescue.

“I want to say thank you to all the people who helped me,” said a smiling Arlette, who was dressed in a denim skirt and an orange polka dot T-shirt.

“I tried to swim to the side but I couldn’t make it. I was scared and then I saw green angels and the next thing I knew I was on the surface.”

Arlette’s mom, Susan Singleton), did not doubt the presence of angels that day.

“Oh yes, I’m sure angels were there,” Singleton said. “They are always around us.”