A boy in Marion County, Indiana, recently became a local hero and is being honored for his actions.
Ten-year-old Floyd Karrer had been working over the summer on holding his breath long enough to reach the bottom of the pool’s deep end, WTHR reported Thursday.
Early in the season, Floyd went for a dip at a pool near Holliday Park with his father, Paul Karrer.
When the pair took a breather, Floyd noticed a boy a little older than himself had just cannonballed into the water. Moments later, other children were saying there was a ball on the pool’s floor.
But according to Floyd, the onlookers then said it was not a ball, but the boy.
When he realized what was happening, Floyd immediately dove into the water and made it to the bottom of the deep end where the child was nine feet underwater, unconscious.
“When he did come up and had the boy, I was in shock,” Paul recalled of the incident, adding, “There was no ‘there’ in his eyes. He was gone.”
For children whose ages range from one to fourteen, drowning is the second leading cause of unintentional injury death in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
However, after Floyd pulled the boy out of the water, his father performed CPR while others sought help. It was not long before emergency crews arrived and took the boy to a hospital.
When someone knows how to perform CPR correctly, the skill can potentially change someone’s life, the American Red Cross website says.
Now, it’s difficult for Floyd and his father to even consider what might have happened had Floyd not been at the scene that day.
“If he’s starting at 10 years old, I can’t imagine how many other people he’ll help,” Paul noted.
The family was later told the child was going to recover from the ordeal. Meanwhile, word spread to city officials and they sent Floyd a proclamation as a show of gratitude for his courage.