Alberta woman saves girl from septic tank

Sundre’s Chelsea Cunningham uses CPR to revive toddler in Arizona

CA L GA RY — An Alberta woman is being credited with helping to save a two-yearold girl who fell into a septic tank in Arizona.

Chelsea Cunningham of Sundre was visiting Maricopa and was at a farmers market on Saturday when the toddler tumbled into the tank. The girl had been chasing her dog when she stepped on the receptacle’s cracked cover, which flipped open. She fell inside and began drowning in the sewage.

Two men dove in and managed to pull the girl out. Cunningham — despite having no formal medical training — used CPR to revive her.

“I don’t remember a whole lot about after that point. I just know that there are some things that I’ve learned that came in handy,” Cunningham said.

The little one was rushed to hospital where she was expected to recover.

Cunningham, a 28-yearold mother of three, said she grew up with CPR because her father insisted on it.

Jim Cowie, Cunningham’s father, was also there. He said

“She wasn’t done. She had a lot left in her, I guess.” CHELSEA CUNNINGHAM

things were so frantic it took him a minute to realize his daughter was the one controlling the rescue.

“That was the intensity of the situation. This child did not look like she was going to make it,” he said.

Henry Ricketts is one of the men who jumped into the nearly two-metre-deep tank head first. “I heard some lady yell, ‘My baby, my baby,”’ he said. “I just got in right away.”

He and the other man began swimming around in the raw sewage. One of them finally felt her hair and the pair managed to pull her out and hand her to Cunningham.

“The girl kept spewing it out and then Cunningham did the mouth-to-mouth,” recalled witness Barbara Fowler. “Honestly, I didn’t think she would make it.”

Finally, the toddler started breathing and began to cry.

Witnesses say it’s a miracle that Cunningham was in the right place at the right time, but she said she’s just happy the little girl came through.

“She wasn’t done. She had a lot left in her, I guess.”

The three were honoured Tuesday with a life-saving award.