12-year-old saves toddler from drowning at motel pool

UNION TOWNSHIP, Mich. — A 12-year-old boy saved a toddler from drowning in a Michigan motel pool after the 3-year-old wandered away from his parents and fell into the water.

Brayden Armstrong was attending a wrestling camp and was staying at the Mt. Pleasant Days Inn and Suites. Returning to the pool to retrieve some clothes, Armstrong said he saw a boy staring at the 3-year-old, who was floating face down in the water, WZZM reported.

According to the Isabella County Sheriff's Office, the boy had wandered into the pool area of the Days Inn Tuesday evening. Video of that area showed the toddler slipped on the steps in the pool and went under the water, WZZM reported.

The child was under water for about two minutes before  Armstrong pulled the toddler out of the water and carried him into a hallway while calling for help.

“I just saw the kid and jumped in,” Armstrong told WZZM. “Like, I was standing there for a second thinking like, ‘Well, maybe he’s going to get up,’ like he was just messing around in the pool.

“I realized he wasn’t getting up so I jumped in and grabbed him.”

Both of the toddler’s parents work at the hotel and the child’s mother performed CPR for a minute before he regained consciousness, according to a release from the Isabella County’s Sheriff’s Office.

“The toddler was familiar with the pool and hotel as the parents both work there. The pool area is open during the daytime hours,” Sheriff Michael Main said in the release.

By the time deputies arrived the 3-year-old was breathing and crying; the boy was taken to a hospital and is expected to recover, the Morning Sun reported.

"For a 12-year-old boy to walk in, comprehend what's going on that quickly and pull him out of the water, there's no other word to describe him than hero," Marin told CNN. "That's what our fiber is made up of human beings, and that's a great story and thank gosh that he was there because he definitely absolutely saved this young toddler's life."

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