WELLINGTON, Fla. (WFLA) — A 12-year-old Florida boy has made headlines after he saved a man from drowning by administering CPR.
NBC affiliate WPTV reported Friday that over a week ago, Austen MacMillan, 12, of Wellington, had been practicing with behavioral therapist Jason Piquette to see how long they could hold their breath underwater in a pool.
Piquette and Austen had been working on swim training and confidence building for years, according to the report.
“We both held our breath like for a minute, a minute and a half,” Piquette told WPTV. “And I said, ‘OK, I am going to do it one more time and like try to get to two and a half minutes.’ And I said to him, ‘Just tap on me when we I’m about a minute 40 [seconds].'”
Piquette said as he spent time underwater, he felt relaxed before losing consciousness in the pool’s deep end.
“My lungs started to fill up with water, and I went from the shallow end at the bottom of the pool because I let all of the air out of my lungs,” he said. “I went to the bottom of the pool and sank. And then I started to raise up a little bit, and I started to drift to the deep end.”
At that moment, the caretaker became the one who needed care.
After a minute and 40 seconds, Austen noticed Piquette was not responding so he pulled him to the shallow end of the pool. He then began CPR on the unconscious therapist, something he said he learned by watching the Netflix show, “Stranger Things.”
“I was doing the compressions, but I wasn’t doing the breathing,” Austen said. “[He] woke up a few minutes later.”
Piquette told WPTV that the compressions allowed the water to exit his lungs, saving his life.
“Every doctor, everyone, has said I should be dead,” Piquette said. “I am so grateful to be alive, and so grateful that Austen stepped up and saved me.”
