‘I Was Gonna Save Him’: Michigan Trooper Revives Four-Year-Old Who Nearly Drowned

A little boy in Newaygo County, Michigan, was pulled back from the brink of death on Saturday thanks to the quick action of a state trooper.

After a call came in about the four-year-old not breathing after he was found face down in water, Michigan State Police (MSP) Trooper Casey Deater arrived at the scene on East 88th Street, WWMT reported on Tuesday.

During a recent interview, Deater told WWJ the child was pulled out of the water near a dock and “I just remember running as fast as I could” with a device used for CPR.

The trooper said the child was unresponsive, so she immediately began doing chest compressions while someone else at the scene tried to breathe into the boy’s mouth. Moments later, the boy responded and began spitting up water.

“Shortly after, the fire department arrived on scene and helped me carry him from the dock onto the lawn. We were able to put oxygen on him and he was fully responsive by that time; breathing, crying, which is a good sound to hear,” she recalled.

Deater then said it was extremely important for people to be trained in CPR in case of an emergency. “Those seconds do matter,” she stated.

When asked if it was hard to overcome the emotions surging at the scene, Deater said it was imperative that she not let anything get in the way of saving the boy’s life.

“I need to be there and be the calm and do something in the midst of everything. Afterwards, for sure it was a little hard because I’d never done CPR on a child before. Then I can kind of let the emotions in but in the moment I have a job to do, I need to save him. I got into law enforcement to save people. I knew that this is what I’ve been training for and I was gonna save him. I needed to,” she explained.

She said the boy’s mother later expressed her deep gratitude to the first responders who rescued her child.

MSP said Monday the boy is expected to make a full recovery and praised Deater for performing “Excellent life-saving measures!”:

“Trooper Deater, a Newaygo native, has been serving at the Hart Post for nearly two years. The post covers Lake, Mason, Newaygo and Oceana counties,” Big Rapids Daily News reported.