LEWISVILLE, N.C. -- A woman is describing the moments when she says a young girl nearly drowned in an apartment complex pool, including when she and others performed CPR on the girl until first responders could get there.
Forsyth County deputies say they were called out to the Brookway West Apartments in Lewisville shortly before 8:15 p.m. Wednesday. Investigators have described their response as a “medical crisis” at the apartment complex’s pool.
“It just happened really quickly. It was not from a lack of supervision,” said Chasity Riley, who lives at the complex. “There were a lot of adults there, the parents were paying attention.”
Riley says in addition to the number of adults, there were also several children at the pool. She described seeing a young girl playing near the steps of the pool in the shallow water.
“I think everybody just looked away at the exact same time,” she said. “One minute she’s playing by the steps in the three feet, like right there.”
Within moments, she said, the girl had slipped under the surface. She added there were no signs of a struggle.
“No flailing, nothing,” Riley said. “It just happened.”
Firefighters from Lewisville Fire Department Station 11 were less than a minute away and were called to respond. In the meantime, Riley – who says she’s a CPR-trained childcare worker – and others started performing CPR on the girl.
“I have been trained to do this, time and time again,” she said.
First responders arrived and transported the girl to Brenner Children’s Hospital, where she’s currently listed in critical condition.
“Any time you have a medical emergency, or a fire, seconds count. So, the faster we can get trained personnel on scene to any of them, it really increases the likelihood of a successful outcome from an emergency response perspective,” Lewisville Fire Department Chief Darin Needham said.
Deputies say there is no open criminal investigation related to the incident.
“They were doing the textbook definition of great supervision,” Riley said, of the child’s parents. “It really just happens, it could happen to anybody at any time, and it did. It wasn’t anybody’s fault.”
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