An 11-year-old Sacramento girl helped rescue a drowning child Easter Sunday at a Mission Bay hotel.
On Sunday, an 8-year-old boy nearly drowned in one of the pools at Paradise Point Resort in Mission Bay.
“It was really scary,” Betty Self said.
The 11-year-old and her family were staying at the hotel while on vacation.
Self said she noticed a boy face down at the bottom of the 5-foot deep pool and jumped in.
“I kind of just did it. I didn't really think. I thought if it was my brother that's what I would do,” Self said.
Self says the 8-year-old was lifeless as she tried to hoist him above water.
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A woman who had just learned CPR the week before was also poolside. She jumped in to help while Self ran to get her mom.
“She was really white and she looked at me and said, ‘Mommy, a little boy, I think he died at the pool,’” Betty’s mother, Brandy Self said.
By the time San Diego firefighters arrived from Station 20, the boy was breathing and alert.
“Everybody was just really, really surprised at her. Even when she talked to the firefighters afterwards, how collected she still was about it,” Brandy Self said.
Self won't call herself a hero, but she does love the card from staff at Paradise Point Resort that said “You're a rock star!” and “Thank you for being so brave.”
“I think anybody would have done it because when you see somebody like that, your first instinct is to help them,” Self said.
For now, Self hopes the rest of her Spring Break is a little less dramatic.
“It’s a vacation I'll never forget.”
Self says the boy's father was on his cell phone near one of the fire pits, where he couldn't see his son.
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