The brave dad rushed to his apartment complex’s pool area and leaped a fence without hesitation to remove Xavier from the water.
Surveillance video from the May 18 incident shows Westerhaus doing CPR on the small child, who is autistic and nonverbal, for two minutes and forty-one seconds.
Westerhaus added, he thought it was a positive indication when he started coughing up water.
DRAMATIC RESCUE: After a 4-year-old living with autism ran into a pool, a boy saw what happened and ran to get his dad. The man jumped over a fence and conducted CPR for nearly 3 minutes until the child started breathing again. https://abc7.la/3a8HGSX
Posted by ABC7 on Monday, 30 May 2022
Alexis Reign, Xavier’s mom, said she was thankful Maddox had been playing with friends near the pool area, and she couldn’t imagine what might have occurred if Westerhaus hadn’t rescued her son. She sobbed she is not sure what she would have done if Maddox hadn’t been in the water and hadn’t spotted Xavier.
Westerhaus and Maddox were later honored as Hometown Heroes on behalf of the Lawrence Fire Medical Department for their gallant deeds.
During a press conference, they also met Reign and saw Xavier, who has fully recovered. The Lawrence Fire Department highlighted Westerhaus’ heroic acts in the aim of raising awareness of how quick thinking may be the difference between life and death in an emergency.
The event occurred on May 18, following a brief toilet break by mother Alexis Reign.
Reign rushed to get her four-month-old baby, who was sobbing, but Xavier was nowhere to be seen.
‘So I went to his room and checked, and he wasn’t there,’ Reign said at a press conference honoring Westerhaus and his kid. ‘I went to the living room since that’s where he plays and where the TV is, and he wasn’t there, but the door was open.’
Xavier was initially seen by 12-year-old Maddox, who was lying lifeless in the water. He had been in the water for three minutes and twenty-two seconds, according to officials.
‘My buddies were shouting at me to go get help, and I just went, ‘Oh no,” Maddox recounted.
As Reign the distressed mother observed sirens and emergency vehicles nearing the building complex, she was filled with dread.
Reign stated that anything may occur in a couple of minutes and that she has subsequently discovered that autistic youngsters are particularly drawn to places of water.
She explained a lot of autistic children enjoy huge amounts of water, such as pools, lakes, and the ocean. She didn’t know until she was in the hospital, and they gave her a lot of information on autistic children.
Children with autism are 10 times more likely to drown, according to the National Drowning Prevention League.
Xavier has subsequently recovered completely, according to his thankful mom.
