N.C. Police Officers Revive Unresponsive 5-Year-Old Girl in Pool
By Mark Price
Source The Modesto Bee
What to know
- Two Shallotte police officers were honored for their efforts to revive a 5-year-old girl who had become unresponsive in an apartment pool June 1.
- One officer performed CPR while the other coordinated the EMS response, and the girl regained consciousness after three minutes.
- Both officers received Life Saving Awards for their swift, decisive action that saved the child’s life.
Two police officers are being hailed as heroes after they investigated an alarm going off and ended up bringing an unresponsive child back to life.
It happened June 1 in Shallotte, and police officials say it was pure luck that the officers were in the right place at the right time.
“Sergeant Jeremy Ferguson and Officer Christopher Brown ... responded to an alarm at the Cardinal Pointe Clubhouse. While on scene, a bystander alerted them to an unresponsive child in the pool,” the Shallotte Police Department wrote in a June 4 Facebook post.
“Sergeant Ferguson checked for a pulse and called for EMS. Officer Brown initiated CPR, cycling compressions and draining water from the child’s airway. After approximately three minutes, the child began breathing on her own.”The 5-year-old girl lives in the apartment community and had been at the pool with her mother and grandmother when she lost consciousness due to “sucking in a bunch of water,” a police official told McClatchy News in a phone interview.
Family members were trying to revive the girl when her grandmother saw the two officers and ran to them for help, officials said.
Once revived, the girl was taken to a hospital and stayed overnight due to fluid in her lungs, police said.
As for the alarm the officers came to investigate, it proved to be a false alert and no burglary was in progress, officials said.
The two officers were honored with Life Saving Awards at the town’s June 3 board meeting for their “swift and heroic actions” and “demonstrating exceptional bravery and quick thinking in the face of danger,” officials said.
Both officers have served 16 years in law enforcement, officials said. Brown has been with the Shallotte police four years and Ferguson has been with the department three years.
Shallotte is about a 165-mile drive southeast from Raleigh, near the border with South Carolina.
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