A North Vancouver grandmother and her neighbours were honoured Friday by the BC Ambulance Service for helping to save her five-year-old grandson's life.
Jene Johnson told CTV News she was putting away groceries on March 30 when she got a sudden urge to check on her grandson Vondrae Martin, who was playing in the back yard.
“I just didn’t like the feeling I got, like a shiver, so I went outside,” Johnson said.
When she went out back, she found the boy floating face-down in the pool. She cried out for someone to call 911 and pulled him out of the water.
“He had a hoodie on which was good because I just grabbed him by his hoodie and his backside and carried him into the family room,” she told CTV News.
Her neighbour Gerry Farrell heard the commotion and promptly climbed over the eight-foot-fence separating their yards. His wife Margaret, brother Chris and sister-in-law Sue also rushed around to help.
“This little boy was blue in the face,” Chris said. “I thought, ‘Oh my god. He’s dead.’”
Johnson, a former nurse, immediately began to administer cardio pulmonary resuscitation, or CPR, taking turns with Margaret and Chris.
The BC Ambulance Service said the little boy’s eventual recovery, which took an entire month at the BC Children’s Hospital, is owed in large part to their quick response.
The group was recognized with BCAS Vital Link awards Friday, an honour handed out to heroes whose good deeds raise awareness about the importance of CPR.
“While we would like to prevent all drownings, having more people prepared to use CPR during a sudden cardiac arrest is the key to giving victims the best chance of survival,” BCAS superintendent Don McPherson said in a statement.
“Vondrae is living proof of that.”
