Near drowning at Great Escape Lodge
When parents visit theme parks with their kids, they expect the utmost in safety. A young girl almost drowns at a local theme park and NEWS10 has the latest on how the child was rescued by visitors in the park.
QUEENSBURY, N.Y. (NEWS10) -- When parents visit theme parks with their kids, they expect the utmost in safety. A young girl almost drowns at a local theme park and NEWS10 has the latest on how the child was rescued by visitors in the park.
“5-year-old female, cardiac arrest. A possible drowning, “said West Glens Falls Fire Company, Third Assistant Chief, Aaron Wohrf.
Saturday afternoon at the Great Escape Lodge and Indoor Waterpark was anything but a great escape, when a little girl got into serious trouble, Molly Newton sprang into action. “There's a little girl face down, not moving. And at first, I was thinking ‘is she swimming?’ So, I grabbed her arm, and she was just completely lifeless, her face is purple, blue. Like, no response at all,” relived Newton.
Molly, a Licensed Nursing Assistant (LNA), from Vermont, says she was celebrating her sons third birthday at the lodge when she and her son were in the lazy river, and they found the lifeless child.
“So, I was like fighting against that current to like get out of the water because I was going in the opposite direction and this other lady, and her husband helped me get her out,” said Newton.
That woman was paramedic Stacy Brayton. “I helped the woman get a little girl out of the water and we put her on the ground immediately and she was blue and so she had no pulse,” said Brayton.
The women then worked together until lifeguards arrived minutes later. “We lay her down flat and I say she needs to get compressions, right away,” said Newton.
“My training just kicked in. Like, I never saw her face. I know there was another woman there and I just saw a child coming at me, limp in someone's arms,” remembers Brayton.
The Great Escape releasing the following, “Our on-site lifeguard and EMT team responded to a young swimmer in distress, providing immediate care. Emergency medical services were called; the guest was breathing when transported to a hospital for further attention.”
The New York State Department of Health is looking into the incident and say they cannot comment on matters under review. The little girl was last listed in stable condition.