Oyster Bay Town: Two lifeguards saved toddler from drowning

Two lifeguards have been credited with saving a toddler’s life after he was found face down and unconscious in an Oyster Bay municipal pool, a town official said yesterday.

Town spokesman Brian Nevin said the incident happened about 4:45 p.m. last Thursday at the Syosset-Woodbury Community Pool on Jericho Turnpike in Woodbury.

Nevin said lifeguard Andres Martinez, 19, of Farmingdale, was stationed at the shallow pool when Martinez said a mother walked to the pool with her 17-month-old son and he later saw the boy sitting in the water.

After turning his head for no more than 10 seconds to tell other children to stop running, according to Martinez’s account, the lifeguard saw the child, now unattended, face down in the water.

“I ran into the pool, picked him up, turned him around . . . He had a pulse but he wasn’t breathing,” Martinez told News 12 Long Island.

Nevin said lifeguard captain Bryan Rhoads, 25, of Syosset, called 911 and began giving the child chest compressions and the child resumed breathing, Nevin said. In a news release Town Supervisor Joe Saladino noted Martinez “immediately pulled the victim out of the water.”

“Captain Rhoads then checked the victim, noticed a pulse but no breathing and began giving chest compressions. The child then proceeded to cough up water and begin to cry and breathe normally again,” he added.

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Saladino said Martinez’s “decisiveness and excellent training is why the child is alive today . . . healthy and happy.” He added, “The quick and skillful actions of the lifeguard crew were praised by those who witnessed the event. . . . They made a great team together.”