Lifeguards, first responders honored for saving 4-year-old boy's life on Long Island
WOODBURY, Nassau County (WABC) -- The Town of Oyster Bay is honoring the lifeguards and first responders who saved a 4-year-old boy's life.
On August 13, Vincent Zhang was playing with his friends at the Syosset-Woodbury Park Pool.
His mother asked a friend to keep an eye on him when she went to the restroom.
He was in the shallow end of the pool when he followed his older brother into the deeper water. He said he remembers trying to hold his breath but sinking into the water.
That is when lifeguards noticed he didn't come back up to the surface.
Gianna Magrino, 18, was the lifeguard on duty and blew her whistle three times and swam right to him.
"Grabbed him on to my rescue buoy, I saw that he was unconscious and his face was turning blue," she said.
He wasn't breathing and he had no pulse.
Ryan Harrison started chest compressions and after 60 pushes, finally saw signs of life. He began to spit out water and started breathing.
"That's always a big relief when they take that first breath, feel the pulse, they're breathing, they have a pulse, OK, now we just need the ambulance to arrive and check him out," Harrison said.
The lifeguarding team stayed with Vincent until first responders arrived and rushed him to a local hospital.
He was discharged from the hospital later that same night.
Oyster Bay Town Supervisor Joseph Saladino honored the lifeguards and the first responders for their quick life-saving actions.
"The fact that Vincent is here smiling as every normal 4-year-old does in the summer is proof positive that our lifeguards are heroes," Saladino said.
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