The Enterprise of Brockton
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Boy saved after pool fall
A 2-year-old Bridgewater boy had stopped breathing after being submerged in a pool for five minutes, but is saved by a neighbor and town rescue workers.
By Elaine Allegrini
ENTERPRISE STAFF WRITER BRIDGEWATER — It was a scene the young woman will long remember. "The baby was blue and non-responsive. His mother was patting the baby on his back," Kathleen Greene, 24, said Wednesday, a day after she rushed next door to find a lifeless, breathless 2-year-old who had
just been pulled from the family's backyard in-ground pool. "They were frantic," Greene said. "They were very panic stricken." On Wednesday, the home at 20 Stephanie Lane was quiet, and the parents of Amin Abbassi were at Children's Hospital in Boston, where the little boy was improving, but not y
et out of the woods, according to fire officials. Greene, meanwhile, said she was "overwhelmed" by the experience that began about 6:45 p.m. Tuesday, when her father called out to her, saying a baby had fallen in the pool. A medical assistant at a Hanover physician's office, Greene said she had CP
R training in high school, but has never before found herself in a life-or-death situation. When the time came, she did not hesitate helping the new neighbors, who she had never met. On Wednesday, she was still unaware of the names of the parents or the children, including a 4-year-old boy she comf
orted after paramedics arrived. Few neighbors have had the chance to get to know the family. Rebecca Abbassi, her husband and two sons moved into the home this summer. Neighbor Pam Nawrocki said she often sees the family playing together outside. "They are the nicest people, and so attentive to th
eir kids," she said. It was a reminder for her, the mother of a 3-year-old, that even the most conscientious parents aren't immune to accidents. Nawrocki arrived home Tuesday to a host of flashing lights. "He had no pulse, he was not breathing," Firefighter-Paramedic Carol Berghaus said. She wa
s among the first of five paramedics who responded to a series of 911 calls from Stephanie Lane. "When you have a call that it's a kid, you can't get there fast enough," said Berghaus, who has been on the job for 12 years and was assigned to the ambulance on Tuesday. She held the ambulance door a
s police officer Robert Rae rushed the lifeless child from the backyard, then she joined a team of medically certified firefighters in reviving the tot. The child was blue, had no pulse and was not breathing, she said. Chief George Rogers Jr. said the boy had been in the pool about five minutes.
The toddler and a 4-year-old brother were in the sunroom behind the raised-ranch house, the parents inside preparing dinner, according to the chief. When the father returned to the sunroom, the younger boy was missing and the older boy unaware of his brother's whereabouts, Rogers said. That's when
the father found the child in the pool, and neighbors heard the confusion and called 911. Greene estimates paramedics arrived in 3 to 5 minutes. Meanwhile, the parents and then Greene administered CPR. Whether the CPR was successful or not, Greene's level-headed response helped get the situation un
der control, said Bridgewater police Lt. Christopher Delmonte. Paramedics revived the young boy with the help of an IO drill, a device designed to deliver intravenous drugs through the tibia (bone) in the lower leg in critical situations and one of two donated by the Jay McGillis Foundation, a mem
orial to the late Boston College football player and brother of Firefighter-Paramedic David McGillis. Former Brockton High football player Jay McGillis died of leukemia in 1992 while a student at Boston College. Meanwhile, the Fire Department's call to MedFlight brought an immediate response; the
emergency medical helicopter was in the sky over Bridgewater on the way back to Plymouth Airport after a run to Boston. "The guys" said they were doing their job. Capt. Ray Wilcox was the incident commander. Firefighters James Wood, Matthew Lake, Berghaus, David McGillis and Jeffrey Germaine
were at the scene, arriving in two ambulances and a fire truck. Levy left the scene to respond to a second medical call with a mutual aid ambulance from Raynham. MedFlight was on the ground before the ambulance arrived at the landing site, and the child delivered to Children's Hospital in Boston le
ss than an hour after the first 911 call, Chief Rogers said. "Everybody worked together," he said Wednesday, pausing in his office after spending time at the tot's hospital bedside, where the boy's family maintained a vigil. Outside the chief's office, the firefighters gathered, shaken by the visi
on of the lifeless child, but buoyed by news that he was showing signs of improvement. "My reward will be when I see that child walk through the door," Berghaus said.

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