Friday, July 09, 1999
Boy rescued from hotel pool
Staffer dives in, administers CPR
BY EARNEST WINSTON and ERIN GIBSON
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Two hotel staff members were credited Thursday with saving the life of a 12-year-old Houston boy who lay motionless for two minutes at the bottom of an outdoor pool.
About 11 a.m., “a little boy came running into the lobby and said his brother wouldn't come up from the bottom of the pool,” said Stephanie Dittelberger, a guest service representative at the Cincinnati Holiday Inn on West Eighth Street in Queensgate.
Miss Dittelberger, of Bridgetown, rushed to the pool and dived in fully clothed to save the boy.
“I didn't even think about what I needed to do,” said the 22-year-old University of Cincinnati nursing student. “I just did it.”
Fire officials said the quick action saved the boy's life.
“Had somebody not pulled him out, it could have been a worse outcome,” said Cincinnati Fire Lt. Robert Howell of District 1.
Randy Butcher, director of sales, helped Miss Dittelberger pull the boy from the pool. Miss Dittelberger said many people were standing around, and she screamed for someone to call 911.
She said the boy's eyes were rolled back, his skin was blue, he wasn't breathing and he had no pulse. She started CPR.
“It took a few seconds,” she said, “then he took one breath.”
She rolled the boy onto his side so he could cough up some of the water in his lungs.
The boy, who authorities declined to identify Thursday evening, was taken to Children's Hospital Medical Center and remained in serious condition.
Miss Dittelberger said her actions weren't heroic. “Anyone with half the sense I have would have done the same thing,” she said.
Lt. Howell said the boy did not know how to swim.
The boy's mother, brother and a sister were at the pool when the incident occurred and noticed him lying at the bottom of the pool, said Andy Ferguson, the hotel's general manager.
Hotel signs notify swimmers that no lifeguard is on duty. Under Ohio law, the pool is not required to have a lifeguard.
Thursday's incident was the latest in a string of drownings or near-drownings this summer at unguarded pools in Greater Cincinnati In recent weeks, two children died in separate incidents.
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