Santa Maria woman saves two boys from drowning in apartment complex pool
National Safety Council statistics point to drowning as a leading cause of death for young children.
For two little boys in Santa Maria, one woman’s quick thinking and CPR training were the difference between life and death.
You may want to call this woman a hero but she’s rejecting that label and says she was just in the right place at the right time.
“I walked around the side and I saw two lifeless bodies at the end of the pool,” said Carla Madrigal Mendoza.
Carla and her family were beating Saturday’s heat wave at her apartment complex pool when instinct took over.
“Without thinking or anything I jumped in the pool with all my clothes on and pulled both of the bodies out of the pool and they were two little boys,” said Madrigal Mendoza.
The La Vista Apartment tenant also pulled upon her experience as a lifeguard and past CPR training for various jobs in the medical field.
“Their eyes were rolled back in their heads and I just started CPR,” said Madrigal Mendoza.
With help from her sister-in-law’s boyfriend, it took about four minutes to revive the boys, who police say are six and eight-years-old.
“He was scared, he thought the other little boy was dead. He didn’t know what to do so we just did chest compressions and I coached him through it until his woke up and mine woke up,” said Madrigal Mendoza.
Simply put, Carla says had she not been in the right place at the right time, those boys would not be here today. “I see myself as a regular person but I just acted, just medical training, just experience and I wasn’t really thinking I was just reacting,” she said.
With no lifeguard on duty and given the recent near-death experience, Carla hopes the staff at La Vista will now consider doing hourly checks on the pool.
“The staff maybe needs to be responsive and needs to do more checks knowing that it is summer season and there’s gonna be a lot of activity in the pool,” said Madrigal Mendoza.
The boys were taken to the hospital as a precaution but are both ok.
Carla has yet to hear from their parents or the La Vista Apartment Complex.
