A foster child on a spring break trip in St. Louis with his grandparents was rescued by a Kenosha firefighter, who just so happened to be staying at the same hotel.
His actions saved the boy's life, despite not having the right equipment.
Scott Carter and his family were also in St. Louis for spring break. His children wanted to go for a swim at the hotel pool when a tragedy nearly unfolded.
"I heard my wife say, 'Oh my god, oh my god’," Carter said as he was walking out of the pool area.
He turned around to see an older man jump in and pulled out his grandson, Roy.
"When the grandpa emerged out of the pool with the little boy he was completely blue and limp and lifeless," Carter said.
The grandfather started doing rescue breaths and Carter, a firefighter and paramedic jumped into action doing chest compressions.
Carter says he pumped for almost two minutes and nothing changed. So he ran to the lobby to get a portable defibrillator or an AED, but the hotel didn't have one.
"I felt kind of hopeless cause he was pulseless and I knew he had been underwater for a while," Carter said.
He went back to doing chest compressions. The little boy's brother was there and Carter's own children were watching as well.
"When this was all going on people were crying behind me, I could hear my kids off to the side," Carter said.
He was worried it was too late.
"I was just thinking, "I gotta save this kid, I gotta save this kid,'" Carter said.
In a last ditch effort he tried a sternal rub.
"Rub on their chest to kind of stimulate someone who is unconscious," Carter said.
He said Roy's eyelids fluttered and then he started choking up water. His family says they are so grateful.
"He was just extremely lucky," Carter said.
Roy's parents immediately drove to St. Louis from their home a few hours away to be with him. They say they are grateful to Carter.
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