'My Heart Is Still Pounding': Dania Beach Neighbor Saves 1-Year-Old From Drowning
DANIA BEACH (CBSMiami) – A 1-year-old boy that nearly drowned in a lake near his Dania Beach home survived thanks to a quick-thinking neighbor.
"My heart's still beating. I hate to say it, but my heart is still pounding," said Carl Dickey.
Dickey's heart is pounding because he just saved the life of a 1-year-old boy who had gone missing from his home in the 2800 block of Lagoon Drive.
"I just seen the mom running on the side yard, running up the side yard here, running in the front screaming, 'My baby, my baby.' So I asked her, 'What's wrong with the baby?' And she said, 'The baby's in the water.' And when I got back there the baby was floating face up in the water," Dickey explained.
That's when Dickey sprang into action fast.
"I grabbed the baby and I put the baby in front of me and then somebody else jumped in and pulled the baby in and they set him on the sea wall and that's when I started CPR," Dickey said.
When the child was taken out of the water, fire rescue told CBS4's Ted Scouten he was unconscious and not breathing.
Dickey began CPR when a BDO deputy arrived who checked for a pulse.
"He kept telling me no pulse, no pulse and the baby spit out a little bit of water and then and I kept pumping and the baby snorted and then he got a pulse and he shook his head yes, the baby got a pulse," Dickey said.
EMS grabbed the child and raced to the hospital.
"When fire fighters arrived they administer advanced lifesaving procedures, they suctioned the child's airway. They ventilated him with oxygen and subsequently transported that child to the hospital and upon arrival at the hospital the child was miraculously breathing and crying," said Broward Sheriff Fire Rescue Bat. Chief Michael Kane.
"I thank God for him being alive. That's what I was praying for the whole time. I just – God happened to put me in the right place at the right time," Dickey said.