Phoenix first responders reunite with toddler they saved from drowning

PHOENIX (AZFamily) — Valley first responders reunited on Wednesday with a 1-year-old boy they saved earlier this month after he nearly drowned. The Phoenix Fire Department said the little boy was found unconscious and not breathing in a backyard hot tub on March 2. First responders say it’s not often they see an outcome like this.

The family didn’t want the little boy’s face to be shown. They had a separate reunion with the fire crews. But we’re told he was all smiles and hugs when he saw the firefighters and police officers.

“Being able to see him today and see that he has no deficits, that he’s laughing, he’s with family, is pretty cool,” firefighter Chris Pardi said.

Three weeks ago, Phoenix Fire was called out to a north Phoenix home where a 1-year-old boy was found unconscious and not breathing in a hot tub. Fire crews say there was a pool fence.

“Clearly, the family was having the worst day of their life,” Phoenix Police officer Alan Hoelscher said. Officer Hoelscher was the first person to respond. He said the family was doing CPR when he got there. He took over until Phoenix Fire arrived. “It’s one of the hardest calls we go on,” he said.

Pardi rushed to the scene and said he wasn’t sure what the outcome would be. “They typically don’t go very well. But when we heard the news, it was a pretty big shocker for us,” he said.

Leah Groom has been a fire dispatcher for 19 years. This was the first time she had ever reunited with someone she helped during a 911 call. “I actually didn’t find out that this young boy survived until this morning. I thought he had passed. So it’s an awesome day for me because I didn’t know. It was very emotional,” Groom said.

“It was an unknown time under the water,” the medical director of the pediatric intensive care unit at Banner Thunderbird Medical Center, Rahul Chawla, said. “He didn’t have a pulse when he got here. We don’t know how long his heart wasn’t working.”

Chawla says the boy was in the hospital for two weeks and luckily pulled through. But that isn’t always the case. According to the Children’s Safety Zone, 23 kids under 12 years old drowned in Maricopa and Pinal counties in 2024.

Officer Hoelscher says these moments can be rare but are very special. “It’s important for us, for everyone, to see that family is whole right now. They are not going to be missing a piece. His siblings aren’t going to grow up wondering what if or who he would have been,” he said.

First responders are urging families to pay attention to your loved ones by a pool, learn CPR, and install a pool fence. SRP has a program that offers free pool fences to valley families. For more information, click/tap here.

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