PHOENIX – Who says there’s nothing good on TV anymore? A young brother and sister used what they learned on TV to save the life of their 2-year-old cousin.
At their Phoenix home Tuesday, 11-year-old Keanu Moreno and his 9-year-old sister, Demi found their little cousin at the bottom of their pool in the backyard. The toddler was drowning.
“I dived in and I got him and I put him right on my shoulder,” Keanu said. “Then I swam to the top and put him on the floor.”
Keanu and Dime’s cousin, 2-year-old Alessandro had snuck outside an open door when no one was looking.
Laying unconscious on the ground near the pool, Alessandro’s skin had turned purple. He was not breathing and Dime said his eyes were wide-open.
“I was really scared,” Keanu said. “I thought he was dead. I really did, but I wanted him to be alive.”
“I was saying, God please help him. Please don’t let him die,” Demi recalled.
Thinking back to what they had watched on the Discovery Channel and Animal Planet, Demi and Keanu jumped into action. Demi dialed 911 while big brother Keanu started CPR.
“I blew into his mouth, and then I went like this really, really hard,” Keanu said demonstrating how he performed the chest compressions on Alessandro. “He started throwing up all of that stuff.”
Keanu said he only had to do CPR for “about 10 seconds,” but because of how scared he was, “it felt like 20 minutes.”
An ambulance soon arrived and took Alessandro to the hospital where paramedics say he is doing just fine.
The children were being supervised by older teenage relatives at the time.
Ironically, Tuesday was the start of “Water Safety Day” in the Valley.
Captain Scott McDonald of the Phoenix Fire Department said the close call at the Moreno’s house was a fitting kick-off, and a reminder of the importance of keeping watch over children when there is a pool nearby.
“We have an incredible outcome to what could have been a very devastating, tragic event,” Capt. McDonald said. “Keanu and Demi did a great job.”
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