Waiden Guerrier and members of Fort Lauderdale Fire Rescue.Photo: Fort Lauderdale Fire Department
On a family trip to Fort Lauderdale, Florida in June 2021, 10-year-old Waiden Guerrier convinced family friend Jennifer Jean-Baptiste to join him in the hotel pool for an impromptuswimming lesson, since she was not a strong swimmer.
But the afternoon fun soon took a horrifying turn when Jean-Baptiste, 39, began to struggle in the water.
“I just felt disoriented,” she tells PEOPLE in this week’s issue. “I lost my footing. I couldn’t feel the bottom of the pool, and I freaked out.”
Jean-Baptiste lost consciousness, sinking to the bottom.
“I saw that she stopped moving,” says Waiden. “I was very scared and very shocked.”
Waiden, a strong swimmer who had taken lessons for years, dove under the water and started to drag Jean-Baptiste to safety — but it wasn’t easy.
“She was unconscious,” he recalls. “She was very heavy.”
Miraculously, Waiden was able to pull Jean-Baptiste to the shallow end of the pool and hold her head above water while he yelled for help. His mother, Carine Senat-Guerrier, who works for the New York City Fire Department, called 911.
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“We started working on her until the fire department came and started doingCPR,” says Senat-Guerrier, “and she revived.”
When Jean-Baptiste regained consciousness, she asked what happened.
“The paramedics are like, ‘He pulled you out of the pool.’ And I’m like, ‘What? The boy weighs 40 pounds soaking wet. How did he do that?'”
“If not for the actions of this quick-thinking young man, the outcome of this incident would have undoubtedly ended horribly,” said Fire Captain Seamus Murphy.
For her part, Jean-Baptiste still can’t comprehend how Waiden was able to display such strength and bravery.
“I owe him a bike, a new PlayStation, a couple video games,” she says, laughing. “But, honestly, if Waiden wasn’t there, I wouldn’t even be here talking to you today.”
source: people.com
