Recent high school grad helps save 4-year-old girl from drowning

BROOKVILLE, Ind. (WXIX/Gray News) - An 18-year-old lifeguard and recent high school graduate is being hailed as a hero for saving a 4-year-old girl from drowing in an Indiana swimming pool.

It was a normal summer afternoon by the pool Sunday for the Allen family when things took a turn for the worse. Father Davey Allen was holding one of his children when he realized he did not see his 4-year-old daughter, Joselyn Allen.

“When I looked up, she wasn’t there,” Allen told WXIX. “My wife started screaming.”

The family’s pool day quickly became a parent’s worst nightmare.

Carolyn Jansing, the 18-year-old lifeguard on duty at the time, spotted Joselyn.

“I saw her at the bottom of the pool, and I just like my heart definitely sunk in those moments,” Jansing said.

Allen, a Marine veteran, says someone pulled his daughter out of the water as he rushed to find her.

“Honestly, when I ran over there originally, I expected her to be crying, and she wasn’t. She was just limp,” he said. “She had lost her pulse. She wasn’t breathing. She was clearly blue.”

Allen took action to try to save his daughter. He began CPR, and Jansing also stepped in, giving Joselyn mouth-to-mouth.

“I think two rounds of compressions and CPR,” Jansing said. “I saw her eyes roll into the back of her head, and she took a big breath and started throwing up. I’ve never been so excited to see a kid throw up before, but it was definitely a big relief.”

Emergency crews took Joselyn to a hospital before she was transferred to Cincinnati Children’s. The 4-year-old spent the night there and was discharged the next day.

Allen says he appreciates Jansing’s help in saving his daughter.

Jansing has only been a lifeguard for a few months and says her training came in handy. She will attend the University of Cincinnati in the fall and plans to be a paramedic.

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