Neighbor's CPR Saves Young Boy After He's Found Lifeless In Koi Pond
TRACY (CBS13) - A father was desperate and crying for help as he carried his lifeless little boy who had just been pulled from the family's koi pond. It turns out, help was just a few houses away.
They'd lived next to each other for an entire year and hadn't met or spoken to each other until the near tragedy brought them together this past Sunday.
Fast forward to Friday, and it's hard to believe just a few days ago 15-month-old Sayeed Anwar was teetering near death.
He did not look good," his father, Zab Anwar, said. "He looked purple. No response, not breathing."
Little Sayeed, lifeless and limp after his father found him face down in their koi pond. The little boy had slipped unseen just minutes before through the sliding door someone left open.
His father found him and panicked.
"And I just grab him and ran outside in the street and just screaming my lungs out for help," he said.
The screams of help didn't go unheard.
"I had my children out here and I heard somebody come outside of their house and scream, 'Help me! Help me!'" neighbor Robert Cathey said.
Cathey happened to be outside playing with his kids and ran to Zab. Robert, a reserve San Francisco police officer, knew CPR and went to work.
"He didn't have a pulse when I started CPR," Robert said. "He wasn't breathing."
As zab called 911, Robert continued chest compressions on the baby. He says it seemed like an hour passed by, but it was only about a minute:
"He took that gasp for air, his pulse came back, his eyes started to open and he started to look around," Robert recalled.
"Then I heard his voice crying," Zab said. "Uh, I can't tell you the feeling."
Sconds later, first responders arrived. Robert says they told him had he not performed CPR, little Sayeed likely would have died.
"I was thankful it worked," Robert said.
Zab certainly is thankful his cries for help were answered by a stranger, a neighbor, and now a hero.
"If it wasn't for him, we wouldn't have this little boy," he said.
Zab said since the incident he doesn't let his kids open the sliding door anymore. He's put a chair in front of it. And he, says, he's getting rid of the koi pond.
