Woman jumps out of wheelchair to give drowning boy CPR

THIS is the moment Desiree Pasko, who often struggles to walk, got out of her wheelchair to help a teen save his drowning mate.

A TEAM effort from a teenage boy and a good Samaritan saved a 12-year-old boy’s life after he almost drowned in a swimming pool.

Cody Runyon was swimming at the Villages at Essex Park apartment complex in Rochester, Minnesota, last week when he realised someone was missing, the Daily Mail reports.

His friend Evan, 12, had suddenly disappeared.

“I went underwater, and all of a sudden I see him just laying on the ground,” Cody told KTTC.

“[He was] just sitting down in five feet, just passed out.”

There was no lifeguard on duty, so the fast-thinking teen immediately swam toward his friend and dived in to get Evan above water.

“I grabbed him … around his waist, and then his head was over my shoulder and I started carrying him,” Cody said.

Desiree Pasko got out of her wheelchair and ran to the edge of the pool to help the two boys. Picture: Liveleak

Cody swam to the shallow end, where Desiree Pasko was waiting to help.

Pasko, who often uses a wheelchair, has fibromyalgia and cannot lift things. So with the help of another child, Cody pushed Evan’s body out of the water.

Then, mustering all her strength, Pasko managed to help pull Evan’s body onto the concrete.

“Adrenaline was so surreal at the time,” she said. “I walked over and said to the young man, ‘This isn’t funny. If you’re playing, this isn’t funny’”.

Pasko realised Evan wasn’t joking around and began to administer CPR, using the knowledge she had gained from taking one class in the 1990s.

“I was terrified, I was completely terrified,” she said. “He was so tiny in that moment and he was blue, and he was cold.”

After performing mouth-to-mouth, Pasko then began to give Evan chest compressions.

“Then I could hear a small gurgle, and his cheeks got pink,” she recalled.

“When his cheeks turned pink, I gave one more breath, I did two more big pumps, and then I tipped him over just praying that he would vomit — and he did.”

“And when he’d vomited I started screaming “He’s alive, he’s alive!’”

Pasco, has fibromyalgia meaning she often uses a walker or wheelchair to get around. Picture: GoFundMe

“Watching a child go from totally blue to a little tiny bit of pink … is a rewarding feeling,” Pasko said, getting emotional as she recalled the harrowing experience.

Evan was hospitalised after being rescued and said the near-death experience has changed how he sees life.

“It’s more fragile than I thought,” he told Good Morning America.

And Evan said he is thankful for Cody and Pasko’s quick thinking.

“They’re definitely my heroes,” he said. “Without Cody and Des, I wouldn’t be alive.”

But Pasko said all credit goes to her teen friend.

“He’s the coolest kid,” she said. “He’s the hero.”

This article appeared in the New Zealand Herald and is republished with permission.