Hotel worker saves girl's life

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PHIL.HOSSACK@FREEPRESS.MB.CA Jaime Rivera had just updated his CPR training in the fall.

Jaime Rivera cringes at the label "hero", but when an unconscious 11-year-old girl was pulled from the bottom of a hotel pool, he took charge and saved her life.

"I just came to get a water sample from the whirlpool and I saw a kid running along the wall," said the 52-year-old shift engineer in the Delta Hotel's maintenance department.

The little girl was attending a birthday party at the downtown hotel pool last Saturday at 5 p.m. Rivera said a fellow hotel employee was speaking with the guest supervising the kids' party.

Rivera looked up and saw his colleague jump in the pool and try to pull the girl to the surface from the deep end. A hotel guest swimming in the pool dove down and pulled her to the surface.

"The girl was unconscious," said Rivera.

"I asked 'does anyone know CPR?'" he said. The man supervising the kids 'party said he didn't. "One lady said 'I know CPR' but she just stood there. So I did it." Rivera's co-worker called 911 and got paramedics on the line, relaying information about the child's condition.

In his 22 years of working at the hotel, Rivera said he's never had to use CPR in an emergency. He'd just updated his training in the fall.

"Everything came to my mind when I saw the girl unconscious," said Rivera.

"The first time I did it, she didn't respond." Rivera said he was thinking about his 10-year-old son while he was performing CPR on the child.

"I'm imagining 'What if it was my kid? I need to save her,'" said Rivera. He was trying to get her to breathe but not hurt her as he performed the chest compressions and administered the breaths.

The second time he performed CPR, her face moved a bit, then she started to gag.

"She threw up and we put her in the recovery position," said Rivera. "I was happy."

The paramedics arrived and the girl was conscious and OK. "They said 'you saved the girl's life,'" said Rivera.

He never expected any acknowledgment or thanks, and has received neither from the family of the girl whose life he saved.

That's OK with Rivera who, at first, declined media interviews after a guest emailed the Free Press with the story of his saving the girl's life.

"I'm a simple person," said Rivera. "I don't want to be like a hero."

Hotel guest Alma Higdon of Trinidad, Colo. thinks otherwise. She watched last Saturday as Rivera quietly, confidently took control of the situation.

"Without a doubt, the skills that maintenance guy learned in the Red Cross health and safety services course helped (save) the girl's life and he deserved to be recognized as (a) local hero," Higdon said in an email.

Rivera downplays his role. When his 10-year-old son heard about it, though, he was proud of his dad for saving a little girl's life.

"My little son was telling his classmates 'My dad's a hero' and I was telling him 'Don't say that.'"

Hotel manager Helen Halliday said she was thankful for the actions of Rivera, his co-workers and the guests who helped the child.

With summer coming and beach and pool season beginning, the incident drives home the importance of adults keeping a close eye on children in the water at all times to make sure they don't drown, said Halliday.

"It can happen in seconds."

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition May 30, 2009 B3