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Eagan Boy Who Nearly Drowned Meets His Rescuers

EAGAN, Minn. (WCCO) -- A 5-year-old boy from Eagan who nearly drowned had a very special surprise Wednesday: He met the people who saved his life.

"I saw him at the emergency room and he was almost dead," Tesfaye Kebede, Gedion's father, said. "He survived because of them."

Gedion and his sister got out of their apartment in May and climbed a fence to get to the pool. Aheed Boulis happened to be walking by the apartment when he heard the young girl crying.

"I kept looking and then I saw somebody else in the pool," Boulis said.

Gedion was at the bottom of the pool.

Without thinking, Boulis jumped the fence and into the water to grab the child. Then a construction worker who was nearby ran over to help and started CPR.

"[He was] lifeless, it was something I never ever want to experience again," Good Samaritan Aaron Titel said.

Titel kept doing CPR until police and paramedics took over. They also responded within minutes.

After a month in the hospital, Gedion is back at home.

On Wednesday, he got to meet the people who saved him.

Boulis suffered a fractured tailbone from the fall after jumping the pool fence. He says it was a small price to pay to save a child.

"It was worth everything," he said.

Titel had taken a CPR class just a few weeks before the incident.

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