Yeah, it works.

16-Year-Old Brings Little Brother Back To Life

by Kim Gebbia

PUTNAM COUNTY, Tenn. - A Putnam County three-year-old nearly drowned in his backyard pool. When his grandmother didn't know what to do, his teenage brother stepped in to save his life.

16-year-old Jeffrey Hall said he never thought he would remember what to do in an emergency and never thought that emergency would involve his little brother in his own backyard.

On Tuesday, Skyler disappeared from sight in their backyard pool when his grandmother, Karen Hall made a phone call inside the house. She walked outside and saw his life jacket on the cement and feared the worst.

"My eyes went directly and I saw his body laying at the bottom of the pool and I dived in," she said.

She pulled the three-year-old from the water, and admitted she didn't know what to do next.

"Just to have that baby in my arms, lifeless. To me he was gone and I didn't know what to do I felt helpless," said Hall.

But Skyler's brother, 16-year-old Jeffrey Hall, didn't feel helpless.

"I was very nervous and scared when I saw his body lifeless like that but I had to stay calm and think that I could save his life I could," said Hall.

He remembered the CPR lessons he learned at Cookeville High School, the lessons he thought he'd never have to use.

"I did five reps of the pushing and two breaths and he started coughing up and then I heard a sigh and it was the biggest smile on my face just happened," said Hall.

"When I saw him at Cookeville Hospital, when they had that baby I grabbed him and said Jeffrey thank you so much thank you so much for saving my baby," Hall said.

Skyler is almost recovered and eager to go home. Jeffrey said this toddler is a living lesson to all adults and teens that CPR saves lives; he just never thought it would be him saving his little brother's.

"If I wasn't there we would be going to funeral he would be gone," said Hall.

Jeffrey said he is organizing a CPR class for everyone on his street since so many of his neighbors in Cookeville have pools.

A detective from the Putnam County Sheriff's Department said Skyler is proof that those two hour classes are well worth the time in Cookeville High Schools.

Imagine what the little girl's mom was experiencing. You don't ever want to be in that spot. Get Trained!

San Jose: Teacher recounts resuscitating girl who nearly drowned in pool

By Mark Gomez mgomez@mercurynews.com
Posted: 07/28/2011 11:30:34 AM PDT
Updated: 07/28/2011 01:16:26 PM PDT

It's been a few years since Lynbrook High School teacher Jeff Bale has undergone CPR training. Wednesday night, the 29-year-old social studies teacher relied on that training to resuscitate a 6-year-old girl who moments earlier had been pulled out of the deepest part of a swimming pool.

"I was certainly nervous," Bale said. "When it's a real person, it's different than a test dummy."

Bale is one of a group of people who sprang into action Thursday night after a 40-year-old father and his 6-year-old daughter were found at the bottom of the 8-¿1/2-foot pool at the Regency Park townhome complex, off Miller Avenue near Vallco Shopping Mall.

The man and girl were pulled out of the pool by a family friend whose identity has not yet been released by the San Jose Fire Department. Fire officials have credited the family friend with saving the lives of the dad and daughter, who were both out of the hospital by early Thursday afternoon.

As of this morning, the father has been released from the hospital and the little girl was doing well but still hospitalized for observation, according to San Jose Fire Capt. Mary Gutierrez.

Gutierrez said the man who pulled out the father and daughter is declining all requests for interviews.
"He's humble and is not comfortable talking to the press," Gutierrez said. "He's happy that his friends are out of the hospital and are safe and sound."

The father and daughter are also declining interview requests.

Sometime around 9 p.m. Wednesday night, Linda Bale was home in her kitchen, which overlooks the swimming pool area, when she heard a cry for help. Her first thought was that kids were playing around. But then Bale saw the a woman -- the girl's mother -- screaming for help. Bale called out for her son Jeff.

As Linda Bale dialed 911, her son jumped over a metal fence surrounding the pool area and ran to the girl, who was lying on the concrete, unconscious and not breathing. He also saw the family friend trying to pull out the girl's father from the deepest part of the pool.

"It was pretty clear she wasn't breathing," Jeff Bale said. "Her mom was already trying to do some impromptu CPR. She kept yelling, 'I don't know how to do CPR.' "

Bale resuscitated the girl after about a dozen compressions. She coughed up some water and started making noises, Bale said. Then the girl started crying.

San Jose firefighters say the girl was sitting atop her father's shoulders as he stood in the shallow end of the pool at about 8:55 p.m. The mother and other friends and neighbors in the complex sat some 25 feet away in a hot tub, facing away from the pool.
Then the mother and friends heard an eerie quiet in the pool. The mother and a family friend got out of the hot tub and ran over to the pool to discover two bodies the bottom of the pool, according to fire department officials.

The friend immediately jumped into the water and pulled both the unconscious girl and her father from the pool. Other people in the area had revived the man by giving him CPR, firefighters said.

"The man was in shock," Jeff Bale said. "We got towels and tried to get him warm. He had a very glassy look."
Jeff Bale deflected credit for his role in saving the girl, saying the family friend who dove into the water deserves the credit, as well as the first-responders who arrived to help.

"This was a community effort," said Bale, adding that the incident has "encouraged me to get a refresher course," in CPR training.
Staff writer Mike Rosenberg contributed to this report. Contact Mark Gomez at 408-920-5869.