Toddler saved from drowning

AZDOC officer performs CPR on child after hearing call for help

An Arizona Department of Corrections officer performed CPR on an unresponsive child who almost drowned in a park pond, saving his life, the Somerton Police Department reported on Tuesday.

According to information provided by Chief of Police Joseph A. Turitto Jr., at approximately 11:40 a.m., the Somerton Police Department received a 911 call reporting a child drowning in a pond located at Council Park and that first responders were on the scene within minutes.

However, before their arrival, a corrections officer, who happened to be in the park at the time supervising an AZDOC inmate work crew, saw a woman frantically yelling for help near the water’s edge.

The corrections officer, who was only identified as J. Alvarez, ran over to the woman and began performing CPR on the 1-year-old child, who was unresponsive and not breathing. After several moments, the child regained consciousness and began breathing on his own.

A preliminary investigation into the incident revealed the child’s mother was in the Somerton library, and had left the child in the care of a 45-year-old, who was also a resident of Somerton.

The aunt had taken the child, who was in a stroller, into the park’s restroom, leaving the child in the unsecured stroller outside the bathroom stall door. The child, however, managed to get out of the stroller and make his way to the water’s edge where he fell into the water.

When the aunt came out of the restroom to look for the child, she saw him floating in the pond and pulled him from the water.

The child was transported to Yuma Regional Medical Center and is in stable condition. He will remain in the hospital overnight for observation.

Somerton Police detectives are investigating the circumstances surrounding the incident.