Petal police officer saves child from drowning in pool on Gulf Coast

Published 8:29 am Wednesday, August 15, 2018

GULFPORT, Miss. (AP) — A Mississippi police officer is credited with saving a child from drowning in a pool.

Petal Police Patrolman LaDean Byrd said he was relaxing in a hot tub at a Gulfport hotel Aug. 4 when he heard a woman screaming “Get my baby! Get my baby!” Byrd says he saw the child drifting at the bottom of the pool.

Another man dove in and brought the 5-year-old boy to the surface, but the child had no pulse. Byrd started performing CPR, and kept it up for about eight minutes until emergency services arrived and were able to get a heartbeat.

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The child was on a ventilator until Aug. 10, and Byrd says the boy is supposed to start school this week.