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Nanny who died saving Syosset child in pool is ID'd

BY ZACHARY R. DOWDY and LAURA RIVERA | zachary.dowdy@newsday.com,
laura.rivera@newsday.com

9:55 AM EDT, July 4, 2008

A live-in nanny in Syosset died Thursday after she jumped into a backyard swimming pool to rescue a 3-year-old charge who was struggling to stay afloat, Nassau police said.

Authorities identified the nanny Friday morning as Anna Montana, 49, of Brooklyn. Montana was pronounced dead at Syosset Hospital. The medical examiner will do an autopsy to determine cause of death.

Montana died as she tried to help the boy, who was wearing a life vest although it may have slipped off him before he began floundering in the pool at 12 Flo Dr., said Nassau police spokesman Det. Sgt. Anthony Repalone.

"It's possible that the 3-year-old child removed his jacket and got into the pool," Repalone said. "And the nanny, in an attempt to save that child, jumped into the pool."

Investigators said the pool had a deep end but did not specify its depth.

When the boy's mother heard the commotion through a second-floor window, she ran downstairs and managed to grab the boy, who was unconscious, and scream for help, police said.

The child was also taken to Syosset Hospital, where he was evaluated and transported to Schneider Children's Hospital in New Hyde Park. A hospital spokeswoman said Thursday night he was in critical but stable condition in the intensive care unit.

"Children can be very quick," Repalone said. "They just slip past you and in this particular case it sounds like the child was able to get into the pool very quickly."

Syosset Fire Commissioner Roy Brouillard said he was four blocks away when he heard the call over the radio and rushed to the house, where he and volunteer fireman Doug Share found the mother holding her ailing child on the couch.

"Right away I could see the child wasn't breathing," Brouillard said. "The child was blue."

After performing CPR and using a mask to force air into the toddler's lungs, the boy began to breathe on his own, Brouillard said.

Then Share ran to the backyard, where he said he helped a police officer and another man pull the nanny out of the pool. Share determined she was in cardiac arrest.

The accident rattled residents of the quiet community, some of whom gathered at the edge of the area police had cordoned off, peering down the street.

"It's such a tragedy, what just happened," said Mariann Colleran, who lives near the home and walked by with her son, Conor, 10.

Christina Mackley, who has a 4-year-old daughter and a 2-year-old son, said she had wanted to install a pool on her property, but Thursday's accident scared her out of it.

"They're nice to have on hot days like this, but it's sad when things like this happen," Mackley said.

Elizabeth Incantalupo, another neighbor, said she is familiar with the nanny and the family.

"From what I saw, she was a great nanny and a nice person," she said.