Shaquelle Massey learned CPR and first aid while working at a YMCA camp in Anchorage, Alaska, and it came in handy when he noticed a boy floating at the bottom of his apartment complex pool.
According to The East Valley Tribune, Massey, 19, was walking by the pool at the Fiesta Park Apartments and noticed a boy on the bottom.
“I was just walking by the pool,” Massey said. “When I first saw him, I thought he was playing a joke, but after not seeing him move at all for about three seconds, I knew he was in trouble. I jumped in the pool, pulled him out and called 911. He started coughing and spitting up water.”
Paramedics revived the boy at the scene and took him to Banner Cardon Children’s Medical Center.
Massey is a sociology major at Mesa Community College and plays for the school’s football team.
Ed Swift is the founder of Children’s Safety Zone, a Phoenix-based organization which reports water-related incidents in Arizona and promotes water safety.
He said supervision and barriers are essential to children’s safety around water, and that just because summer is over incidents of drowning continue due to Arizona’s hot weather late into the year.
“Drownings never stop,” Swift said. “They are more prevalent in the summer, but in the fall, pools aren’t too cool to get into yet. You always need to have barriers up and make sure the kids are being watched.”
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