Chelsea Cunningham of Sundre You girl rock.
The life-saving act of an Alberta woman, who helped rescue a toddler that fell into a septic tank in Arizona is being hailed as heroic.
Chelsea Cunningham of Sundre, Alta. and two others rescued Kylie Lafferty, a two-year-old girl who had plunged into a sewage tank behind the Farmer’s Market in Maricopa, AZ.
Cunningham, who performed CPR and mouth-to-mouth resuscitation on the girl, and the two men, who scooped up the toddler from the raw sewage, were honoured Tuesday by the Pinal County Sheriff’s Office with a Life-Saving Award.
Cunningham, reached by the Sun following the ceremony, said she didn’t think twice whether to give the girl a mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.
She said in a life and death situation, one’s rescue training kicks in and it doesn’t matter where the patient had been.
“She looked clean enough to me, clean enough to live,” Cunningham said.
The girl wasn’t breathing and had no heart beat after she was pulled from the tank.
“She’s a beautiful little girl who now has another crack at growing up,” she said.
The girl and her family were reunited with her rescuers in a brief ceremony Tuesday.
Sheriff Paul Babeu said the three heroes risked their own safety to intervene and save the life of a complete stranger who happened to be a young child.
“Had it not been for these three heroes the young child would have certainly died,” he said.
Babeu said it’s an honour to present the trio with life-saving awards on behalf of the family, the county and its citizens.
Lafferty’s mom Emily Howard gave a tearful thanks to her heroes at the ceremony.
“Thank you so much,” she said.
“She means the world to me.”
The drama took place Saturday as the girl chased her dog into a nearby dirt area, stepping on a cracked plastic cover atop a septic tank and falling into it, county officials said in a news release.
When the child stepped on the cover, it flipped open and the child fell into the tank and went completely under the sewage.
The child’s mother screamed for help, catching the attention of the Good Samaritans.
Two men immediately jumped into the tank to try and locate the girl.
They swam around in the tank until one them could feel the child’s hair.
She was pulled up and handed off to Cunningham, who used her first aid training to revive the girl.
A short time later, the girl began to breathe on her own and started to cry.
Cunningham said she’s thankful emergency crews arrived in time to rush the girl to a hospital.
“I will never forget this experience,” she said.
“I feel really blessed that I was able to contribute to someone’s life.”
The girl was released from hospital Monday and is expected to fully recover.
Witnesses say it’s a miracle that she was in the right place at the right time.
Chelsea Cunningham of Sundre YOU ROCK GIRL
Linear Mode
