CPR hero praises God for preventing drowning
Published: April 6, 2007
A woman of faith, Louise Castaneda said the Holy Spirit spoke to her Tuesday.
As she sat at a picnic table at Sherwood Park in Plainwell, watching her daughter, granddaughter and several other parents and children enjoy the warm weather, “the Holy Spirit was telling me someone is going to drown today,” the 40-year-old certified nurse assistant said.
Moments later, while talking with her husband on her cell phone, Castaneda said she heard yells for help.
A 2-year-old boy who had been at the park with family disappeared at about 4:50 p.m. Tuesday and was found in the nearby Kalamazoo River, according to the Plainwell Department of Public Safety.
Detective David Rantz said the toddler was found about a foot from shore in knee-deep water. The boy, whose name was not released, was taken to Borgess-Pipp Hospital and then Bronson Methodist Hospital in Kalamazoo. As of Thursday, he was doing well, police said.
Castaneda said she called 911 after hearing the calls for help Tuesday, and as she spoke to an emergency dispatcher, ran to an area of the park where she saw 24-year-old Jon Crawford, of Plainwell, tending to the unresponsive boy.
Castaneda, who received her cardiopulmonary-resuscitation certification last year, started CPR on the boy. He still was not responding when she turned him over and gave him swift pats on the back, telling him “in the name of Jesus Christ, breathe.”
Water began coming from the boy’s mouth and he let out a “moaning cry” as rescue workers arrived, Casteneda said.
Crawford’s girlfriend, 19-year-old Amber Blackmore, said the boy, whom she identified as Dillon, and her 2-year-old daughter had been playing, chasing each other around the playground for 30 to 45 minutes.
“He was on her tail,” Blackmore said.
Blackmore said she and Crawford were talking with the boy’s mother, whom she identified as Ashley, when they noticed he did not come down a slide behind Blackmore’s daughter.
“It just happened so fast and we started looking around, and that’s when panic started to set in and we started searching,” Blackmore said. For two to three minutes, Blackmore said people looked for the boy, until she spotted him lying face-up in the river water.
“I ran and I jumped in the water, and I pulled him out,” Blackmore said. Crawford took the boy from her and, though he had not been trained in CPR, attempted to perform it on the toddler, Blackmore said.
Given the near tragedy, Blackmore said she and Crawford plan to take a CPR class.
Castaneda spoke with the toddler’s mother and was told the boy was doing well.
“He has been given a second chance, and I told her that God has a great big purpose for him,” she said. “God used me as an instrument to help, and that’s it.”
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