Friends Credited With Pulling 12-Year-Old Boy From Rochester Pool
ROCHESTER, Minn. (WCCO) -- Two friends are being called heroes for saving a boy from the bottom of an apartment swimming pool in Rochester.
"There were six people, and then there was five," said 13-year-old Cody Runyon said.
That sixth person was a 12-year-old boy unconscious at the bottom of the pool.
Runyon acted quickly.
"I hold him around the waist, put his head over my shoulder and I just carried him like that," he said.
At four-feet, 11-inches tall and under 80 pounds, Runyon managed to pull the boy above the water.
He spots his friend, Desiree Pasko, by the pool.
"Cody knows I can't lift," Pasko said.
She has fibromyalgia and is often in a wheelchair.
So, Runyon swam the boy to the other end of the pool, and pushed him up onto the concrete of the shallow end where she was waiting.
"I said this is not a funny game to play I don't think it's funny," Pasko said.
But deep down Pasko—who took one CPR class in the 90s—knew it was real. She started compressions.
"I was terrified," she said. "Absolutely terrified."
After 30 long seconds, the boy's cheeks turned pink and he coughed up water. He was alive.
"In my mind, I didn't save that boy's life," Pasko said. "It was a two part process if Cody hadn't brought him to me."
The 12-year-old boy's family says he got out of the hospital Wednesday and is going to be OK.
