Video Captures Harrowing Moment Dad Rescues Neighbor’s Child From Drowning

Just The Right Moment

Kansas resident Tom Westerhaus knows this all too well. When presented with the opportunity to be a hero, he leaped into action before he could even think—though not out of selfish desire.

It all began when Westerhaus' 12-year-old daughter, Maddox, rushed to tell him that she saw the neighbor's preschool-aged boy fall into their pool. Thankfully, Westerhaus had been trained as a lifeguard in his youth, and as soon as the need arose, he remembered all of his rescue lessons perfectly.

Saving A Life

Security-camera footage captured his heroic act, first chronicling his dive into the pool and his swim back to the surface with the 4-year-old boy in his arms. He placed the boy on the concrete at the pool's edge and began administering CPR. At this point, the boy had been underwater for over three minutes.

After two minutes of chest compressions administered by Westerhaus, the boy began breathing on his own again, right as emergency services arrived to help him.

A Moment's Distraction

His mother, Alexis Rigney, had been taking care of her 4-month-old when she noticed the back door was open and her son, Xzavier, was missing from the home. By the time she noticed and rushed outside, she reported already being able to hear sirens in the distance.

Thankfully, Westerhaus had already arrived. When Rigney made it outside, Xzavier was already coughing up water and coming back from the harrowing drowning he experienced after simply wanting to play outside.

High Honors

Westerhaus is nothing short of a hero.

Paramedics confirmed that if he hadn't swept in to perform CPR on Xzavier after he'd fallen into the pool, it's likely that the boy wouldn't have survived. Both Westerhaus and Maddox received Hometown Hero awards from Lawrence-Douglas County Fire Medical for saving the young boy's life and acting fast in order to do so.

Drowning is the leading cause of unintentional death in children, so the fact that Maddox saw what happened was a miracle in itself.

On Your Toes

There's definitely a lesson here about staying up to date on life-saving techniques such as CPR, as you never know when you're going to need them. Being trained on it because it's part of your job is handy, but you wouldn't want to be the only person in a dire situation who can help and not know what to do.

It's our duty to remain vigilant and protect our fellow man, which includes stepping in to save someone if the time ever calls for it.

Deepest Regret

It's also worth mentioning Xzavier's mother, who must have felt heart-dropping fear in those moments. Being a mother of two very young children is extremely hectic. While you could argue that yes, this shouldn't have happened in the first place as she should have been watching both of them, it's not particularly helpful, and it's something she surely knows already. She got turned around for a few minutes with her other child and, unfortunately, sometimes that's all it takes.

No one likely feels worse about this situation than she does, and you can rest assured she has learned her lesson. This isn't something anyone would want to go through once, let alone twice.

Someone To Trust

Lastly, this experience will hopefully serve as a reinforcement to Maddox that she should always, always pipe up if she sees something questionable or dangerous taking place. Her parents, including her life-saving father, appear to have raised her well in that regard, and knowing she got to help save someone because of it should only further instil that trait. Being someone others can trust in moments like this is invaluable.

Community help and support are imperative in moments like these. Being able to rely on your fellow neighbor for help, even dire help like this scenario, is what collective living is all about.

Have you ever wished there was an easier way to unlock your path and purpose? A way to tap into universal wisdom, so you’d know exactly what it is you’re supposed to do?

Use this link to claim your free astrology reading to learn about your true potential and the (many!) astral energies that have been guiding you since the day you were born…