Drowning Boy Saved By Bystander, Teen Lifeguards In Parsippany

PARSIPPANY, NJ — When a 9-year-old boy jumped off the diving board and never surfaced, it could have ended in tragedy. But thanks to the quick thinking and actions of a Good Samaritan and three teenage lifeguards at a Parsippany pool, the boy is alive and well.

The near-drowning happened around 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday at the Glacier Hills Association pool, Parsippany police confirmed. A 9-year-old boy visiting the pool with a friend jumped off a diving board into the deep-end, with depths of at least ten feet, and didn't resurface.

Pool member Janet Adams was relaxing nearby when she heard other children scream for help, and immediately sprang into action. It only took a few seconds for the on-duty lifeguards to also jump into the pool, Glacier Hills association president Brad Meumann told Patch. Lifeguards Kendall Pachiolo, 15, and Rosie Walek, 16, jumped into the water, pulling the boy out of the deep end of the pool alongside Adams.

The boy was under for about 30 seconds and was unconscious when he was pulled out, so the two lifeguards performed chest compressions as Adams gave mouth-to-mouth. Another lifeguard, 16-year-old Kevin Mulligan quickly called police.

Meumann told Patch that the whole thing happened pretty quickly from start to finish, and the boy was awake by the time police arrived to the scene. He was taken by ambulance to a hospital for medical treatment.

Meumann praised the teenage lifeguards for their quick thinking and actions in the face of an emergency.

"They did what they were trained to do, they did a great job. Two young lifeguards, just doing it right. We're very, very proud of what they did," Meumann said.

Their quick actions were based on good training, not prior first-hand experience: this was the first time any of the lifeguards in the pool's half-century in operation have had to truly save a life, Meumann said.

"I've been asking the old timers if there's anything even close to this incident, and there never has been, and you're talking 50 plus years," he told Patch. "People said people have been pulled out, they get water, but we can't remember a time someone left in an ambulance."

Both Meumann and Adam's husband, John, told Patch they heard the boy had been discharged from a nearby hospital and was doing fine.

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