SPRING VALLEY, Calif. (KGTV) - A father, a 911 dispatcher, and first responders were all honored Wednesday for their efforts to save a 2-year-old boy from drowning.
Dozens of people packed into a board room in Spring Valley at the San Miguel Consolidated Fire Protection District, with many of them in attendance to honor some local heroes responsible for saving young Ayden Rosas.
“I remember we were having a gathering in the backyard. We were having a little small conversation. And then I was doing my routine check-up on my son,” said Anthony Rosas, Ayden’s father.
At around 10 p.m. on July 17, Rosas saw what no parent wants to see in their family’s backyard pool.
“Seeing him face down in the water. My immediate reaction was to get him out of the pool as quick as possible; started doing chest compressions on him," Rosas said.
After leaping into the pool to get his son, Ayden’s grandmother called 911. The calm voice of Heartland Communications dispatcher Nicole Mainer was on the other end of that vital call.
“Just having prior experience I think it really helps,” Mainer said. “I have actually taken a couple of drowning calls throughout my career. Thankfully, this one had a good outcome.”
As Mainer was guiding Rosas through CPR, a San Diego County sheriff’s deputy arrived minutes later and took over for Rosas.
Then, San Miguel Consolidated Fire Protection District crews got to the scene to give more advance life-saving treatment until paramedics got to the home.
“Scared of losing my child? Yeah. It came across my head but I wasn’t trying think negatively. I was trying to think on the positive of it and hope for the best outcome,” Rosas said.
All of them working as one to save this young boy, get him to a hospital and still be standing here today.
“I couldn’t be anymore thankful for them for contributing as one whole organization, one whole group,” Rosas said. “If things didn’t work out the way they did, he probably wouldn’t be standing next to me here today.”
That group from the family to the first responders all being honored for saving little Ayden.
“Proud. I mean, each individual that was on the call whether it was the family or it was the first responders played an important role in the survival of the child,” Division Chief Andy Lawler of the San Miguel Consolidated Fire Protection District said.
