A 4-year-old child with autism almost became a statistic in drowning deaths earlier this month. Thankfully, the boy had two heroes looking out for him who ended up saving his life. But it was an incredibly close call.
Xavier Rigney, who is nonverbal, left his mother's apartment and somehow figured out how to get into the locked pool area. Video footage shows him walking toward the pool and hopping in.
Within mere seconds, the child is underwater and sinking.
The little boy, who was wearing only a diaper, can be seen trying to reach for something to grab onto, but there is nothing around. He quickly sinks toward the bottom of the pool. But luckily, someone saw him go in.
Maddox Westerhaus, a 12-year-old neighbor, saw Xavier underwater. He told his father, Tom, who then jumped the fence. He was able to pull the child's limp body out just in time. Xavier had already been underwater for over three minutes.
If even another minute had passed, it's unlikely that the child would have been able to be saved. But Tom, who had once been a lifeguard and received CPR training about 15 years prior, remembered what to do. He quickly began efforts to resuscitate the child, giving him chest compressions. Xavier woke up and began breathing before first responders arrived.
The boy's mother, Alexis Rigney, is overwhelmed with gratitude. “Xavier is my best friend, and I don’t know what I would do without him,” she reportedly said. The mom said she had only stepped out of the room for a second to check on the child's 4-month-old sister when he left the apartment.
The father and son’s actions were “one of the most heroic things [he had] ever witnessed,” Lawrence-Douglas County Fire Medical Battalion Chief Rob Fleeup said in a ceremony to celebrate the rescue.
“We’re very happy to celebrate this positive outcome,” he said, “because far too often, these stories do not have a positive outcome.”
