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Women who helped save girl pulled from pool recall group effort

News Channel 8 photo by PAUL LAMISON

Dollean Mercer, left and, Dedre Leobold stand near the pool where they helped rescue a girl from drowning.

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By KATIE CORONADO | News Channel 8

Published: June 22, 2009

The women were sitting by the pool Saturday afternoon when they saw a little girl pulled out of the shallow end of the pool at the Westwood Reserve apartment complex in Citrus Park.

People were screaming for help.

"Does anyone know CPR?"

Dollean Mercer, and her friend, Dedre Leobold – both residents of the complex - ran over to where the little girl was.

Leobold helped the little girl breathe while Mercer took care of the compressions, said Mercer. Another neighbor, whom they did not know, checked the girl's pulse. Yet another called 911.

Some people were even holding towels over the little girl, providing them shade.

It was a "tag-team effort," Mercer said.

"It was a really awesome collective of people," Leobold said. "They all assigned themselves what to do."

As they tried to save the girl, Mercer recalled saying, "in the name of Jesus, you will not die."

When water started flowing out of the little girl's mouth, they knew the girl would live.

"We knew this baby deserved a chance to live," Mercer said.

They did not stop working on the girl until paramedics arrived.

Mercer said she learned CPR about 25 years ago while serving as a sergeant in the U.S. Army. She said she never thought she would have to use this.

Leobold said she had CPR training from a previous job at a day care, where she worked with children.

The women never found out who the little girl was. They just know she does not live in the apartment complex.

Everything happened so fast, they said.

"I would just like to see her little face, because I remember her lying flat," Leobold said.

Minutes before this happened, Mercer went back into her house because it was too hot out.

"I was supposed to relax at home, but something told me to go back to the pool."

As the little girl left with paramedics, the women said a prayer. Later they got a call from the hospital.

The little girl was OK.

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