Bystanders act quick to save girl from drowning

City Beach Lagoon site of panic Monday

By ERIC BERTO

Staff reporter

One second he looked up and she was there. The next second Oak Harbor resident Michael Anderson was yelling for his wife to get a lifeguard and he was pulling a young girl from the water.

Paramedics and fire crews responded to a near drowning at City Beach Lagoon Monday afternoon. Oak Harbor Fire Chief Mark Soptich said the girl, who he estimated to be around 7 years old, was transported to Whidbey General Hospital for treatment, but was alert.

Anderson, who helped lifeguards pull the young girl out of the water, said she was floating around the lagoon on a piece of driftwood and fell off of it.

“I just pulled her up and laid her on her side,” Anderson said. “She was spitting up white foam.”

Soptich said the girl was in the water with her grandmother and the girl’s brother. The brother was able to pull her to shore, he said.

“It sounds like they were out there and got exhausted,” he said. “All three were in the same predicament.”

When firefighters arrived at the scene, they rushed the girl to the ambulance for treatment. No further information on her condition was available.

Paramedics treated the grandmother for what appeared to be exhaustion, administering oxygen and monitoring her blood pressure closely.

Two lifeguards from the nearby swimming area responded to Anderson’s cries for help, but would not comment on the situation.

Paramedics took all three people by ambulance. No further information was available of the condition of the three people, as privacy laws prohibit the release of medical information.