Two Warren County firefighters revive drowned 2-year-old; save his life

The child was lifeless and laying on the deck of the pool when firefighters arrived.

Monday night at around 7:15 p.m. a call came into the 911 call center of a 2-year-old that had drowned at the Pecan Ridge Apartment’s pool. FireBoss Jerry Briggs was holding a training session at the Culkin Station, just across the road from the apartments. When the call came out, he jumped into his truck and raced to the pool. While he was doing that, two other firefighters, Hayden McDougal and Karl McCaffrey also headed to the scene.

When Briggs arrived the child was on the deck of the pool and lifeless.. He picked up the child and took it to the tailgate of McCaffrey’s truck where a makeshift area to work on the child had been set up. “We hooked up a bag valve mask and gave positive pressure ventilation with oxygen, induced vomiting,” explained McCaffrey. “The baby vomited some pool water out and began crying immediately.”

“I assisted where I was needed,” said a humble Hayden McDougal. “It was a group effort.”

For his part, McDougal has trained hundreds of hours and been on over a hundred calls already this year in Warren County. The experience and training helped him to keep a cool head, “We train a lot. Every call I go on I try to learn a little something. All the other experienced guys, I try to learn from them …we do train for this.”

McCaffrey has been training since 1995. When McCaffrey shows up to an emotionally charged situation like a drowned 2-year-old he says, “It kicks my training in.”

“We train for this, it’s not something we take lightly,” said McDougal

The two-year-old was transported to a Jackson area hospital and after a short stay is now back at home with his family.

Warren County firefighters are volunteers, neighbors, who give their time out of a sense of community service and selflessness. If you are interested in learning more about becoming a Warren County Firefighter, you can contact FireBoss Jerry Briggs at 601-218-9911. All your training and equipment is provided for you and there are jobs for everyone from putting out fires, saving babies, filling air tanks and keeping up with documents.