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Bystander helps revive baby after near-drowning in Box Elder County canal

Posted at 10:35 PM, May 31, 2017
and last updated 2017-06-01 16:58:24-04

BOX ELDER COUNTY, Utah — A one-year-old boy was flown to a hospital Wednesday night after a near-drowning in Box Elder County, and police say a passerby with medical training helped revive the child.

According to a press release from the Box Elder County Sheriff’s Office, a mother was out for a walk with her four children, ages 1 to 11, and their family dog.

The incident occurred around 9 p.m. in Bothwell, which is a small community about 4.5 miles west of Tremonton.

The mother was pushing a 1-year-old child on a stroller as the other children rode bicycles. When the family reached an intersection the children stopped, except for a 5-year-old who kept going.

When the mother let go of the stroller to go after the 5-year-old child, the stroller rolled into a canal adjacent to the roadway. Police say the mother went into the water immediately and pulled the stroller out, but the boy had already fallen out of the stroller.

She looked in the canal but did not see her son, so she got out and went to the other side of the road and found the child, who had passed through a culvert that runs underneath the road.

The boy was unresponsive when the mother pulled him from the water, and a passerby with medical training assisted with CPR. The child was revived and taken to Bear River Valley Hospital. The child was subsequently flown to Primary Children’s Hospital as a precaution for observation, and the child is reportedly “doing fine”.