Boy helps save 3-year-old girl who was drowning in lake

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

An alert 11-year-old boy played a key role in saving a 3-year-old girl from drowning at a Minnesota lake over the weekend.

Everett Melling saw the little girl's head go under the water at Lake Johanna in Arden Hills on Saturday.

"Her head was under water," Everett told KSTP. "She wasn't moving at all."

Everett initially thought the girl was playing a game, but then realized she was in trouble. He alerted his mother.

"I just started screaming, 'Drowning! Drowning!'" Elena Melling told the station.

Many people who were on the beach jumped in to help the girl, including Everett. Luckily, there were some nurses on the beach as well. They performed CPR on the girl.

Everett Melling played an instrumental role in saving a 3-year-old girl from drowning. (kstp)

"I heard someone say 'She has a pulse,' and someone else said she was breathing on her own," Elena Melling told KSTP. "She was coughing."

The girl was taken to a nearby hospital, and is expected to make a full recovery.

"I feel like it was a miracle, because by the time he told me, and I reacted, and other people reacted, she was face down in that water for so long and not struggling," Elena Melling told the station. "It was amazing they were able to revive her. I was so thankful."

She said she and her son are going to learn CPR in case something like this happens again.