Retired AL Firefighter, Wife Revive Toddler

April 29 -- A retired Hoover fire captain and his physician wife revived a young boy after he was found unresponsive at the bottom of a Georgia pool over the weekend.

The near-tragedy happened about noon Saturday at a hotel in Stone Mountain. Dr. Elizabeth Jacobson, owner of Inverness Dermatology and Laser, and her husband, retired Hoover Fire Capt. Keith Jacobson, were there attending a dermatology conference when panic erupted at the hotel pool.

Dr. Jacobson said a 4-year-old boy was found unresponsive at the bottom of the pool. A woman had pulled his lifeless body out of the water and an another man was trying to determine what to do when the Jacobsons took over and sprang into action.

Dr. Jacobson started chest compressions on the boy while her husband performed the rescue breathing. "He had no pulse, he was completely blue and lifeless,'' she said.

The Hoover couple had to do two rounds of CPR - each round consisted of 30 chest compressions and two rescue breaths - before the boy was revived. It took about 1 1/2 minutes. "There were probably 50 people around the pool and a lot of panic,'' Dr. Jacobson said. "It was clear people did not know what to do."

After the two rounds of resuscitation, the boy showed signs of life. "He was crying, awake and breathing,'' she said.

About 20 minutes later, rescue workers arrived and rushed the boy to a nearby hospital. Dr. Jacobson said he had no brain damage. The couple, along with their two children Sam and Sarah Claire who witnessed the drowning, went to visit the boy in the hospital Saturday night. The boy's mother asked that his name not be used, but gave them permission to share of photo of him.

"He looked perfectly healthy and is so precious,'' Dr. Jacobson said.

She said it all happened so fast, and she is so thankful that she is trained in CPR. "It's not something I use in my practice,'' she said with a laugh.

She said this should be a reminder that everyone needs to be trained in CPR. "The thing is, nobody knew what to do,'' she said. "It can happen to anybody. If you just have the basic knowledge, you can save someone's life. And in this case, it was someone so adorable."

"I'm just thankful we were there,'' she said, "and knew what to do."

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