Xander Vento
Xander, you are the stuff of heroes, thank you Little Man. That girl is safe, and you are being parted out to save other kids.
God Bless you mate, you are the hero of the day.
Heroic little guy. RIP.
In the Savior’s arms he is this day.
This beautiful child gave his life for another. He is a true hero. He is resting in the arms of the Lord this moment and for wternity.
God bless you Xander, and your family.
Just a week or 2 ago a little girl saved her drowning brother from a pond but drowned herself. Very sad stories.
Xander Vento
God bless Xander. Greater love hath no man than one who lays down his life for his friends.
Heartbreak! You are sweet to post this. A story of the greatest virtue and even much greater reward for our little hero man- a saint of great price now. Blessings in Glory.
Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. Matthew 22
And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. 1 Cor 13
Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. John 15:13
May he Rest In Peace and our prayers are with his loved ones. John 15:13
We’re all humbled. With people so callous today, here’s a preschooler who was willing to risk his life to save another child. He is an angel on earth. But it’s so heartbreaking what happened as a result.
I’ve already shared tears about this once today. My heart is breaking for this family. God bless this boy. He’s in the arms of our dear Savior today in Heaven.
Where were the parents? Where were the lifeguards? Why was a three-year-old girl far enough away from her parents that she could even get in trouble? How did it happen that this boy was in the water without adult help long enough to get in trouble himself?
Both of my kids have been lifeguards and pool-complex managers (son now, daughter during college). I drove them to their training and listened to the lectures. They have both had to save tiny children whose parents did not obey the rule to ALWAYS stay within arm’s length of a small child who is in the water. They both cracked the whip at the pools they managed, insisting parents either stay in arm’s reach and supervise their kids, or go home, because lives are at stake. I obeyed that rule when my kids were tiny. It’s not that hard.
This heroic, noble-spirited little boy should not have had to die. It’s so infuriating that a tragedy like this ever took place. May God lift him up to everlasting joy.
I hate to interrupt all the praise and blessings for this sweet boy, but where the hell were the damn PARENTS? How could they put a 3 year old in a pool with any possibility of drowning? How was he in a position to be the only one to save her? WTF?
RIP kid
Good job, Little Man. You were more responsible, sadly than the “adults” who should have been in the pool with you.
Remember: Real drowning doesn’t look like movie drowning.
Read this. It could save your life or the life of another. Watch the video at the link.
http://mariovittone.com/2010/05/154/
Drowning Doesn’t Look Like Drowning
Post image for Drowning Doesn’t Look Like Drowning
by Mario on May 3, 2010
in Boating Safety,Water Safety
The new captain jumped from the deck, fully dressed, and sprinted through the water. A former lifeguard, he kept his eyes on his victim as he headed straight for the couple swimming between their anchored sportfisher and the beach. “I think he thinks you’re drowning,” the husband said to his wife. They had been splashing each other and she had screamed but now they were just standing, neck-deep on the sand bar. “We’re fine, what is he doing?” she asked, a little annoyed. “We’re fine!” the husband yelled, waving him off, but his captain kept swimming hard. ”Move!” he barked as he sprinted between the stunned owners. Directly behind them, not ten feet away, their nine-year-old daughter was drowning. Safely above the surface in the arms of the captain, she burst into tears, “Daddy!”
How did this captain know – from fifty feet away – what the father couldn’t recognize from just ten? Drowning is not the violent, splashing, call for help that most people expect. The captain was trained to recognize drowning by experts and years of experience. The father, on the other hand, had learned what drowning looks like by watching television. If you spend time on or near the water (hint: that’s all of us) then you should make sure that you and your crew knows what to look for whenever people enter the water. Until she cried a tearful, “Daddy,” she hadn’t made a sound. As a former Coast Guard rescue swimmer, I wasn’t surprised at all by this story. Drowning is almost always a deceptively quiet event. The waving, splashing, and yelling that dramatic conditioning (television) prepares us to look for, is rarely seen in real life.
The Instinctive Drowning Response – so named by Francesco A. Pia, Ph.D., is what people do to avoid actual or perceived suffocation in the water. And it does not look like most people expect. There is very little splashing, no waving, and no yelling or calls for help of any kind. To get an idea of just how quiet and undramatic from the surface drowning can be, consider this: It is the number two cause of accidental death in children, age 15 and under (just behind vehicle accidents) – of the approximately 750 children who will drown next year, about 375 of them will do so within 25 yards of a parent or other adult. In ten percent of those drownings, the adult will actually watch them do it, having no idea it is happening (source: CDC). Drowning does not look like drowning – Dr. Pia, in an article in the Coast Guard’s On Scene Magazine, described the instinctive drowning response like this:
1. Except in rare circumstances, drowning people are physiologically unable to call out for help. The respiratory system was designed for breathing. Speech is the secondary or overlaid function. Breathing must be fulfilled, before speech occurs.
2. Drowning people’s mouths alternately sink below and reappear above the surface of the water. The mouths of drowning people are not above the surface of the water long enough for them to exhale, inhale, and call out for help. When the drowning people’s mouths are above the surface, they exhale and inhale quickly as their mouths start to sink below the surface of the water.
3. Drowning people cannot wave for help. Nature instinctively forces them to extend their arms laterally and press down on the water’s surface. Pressing down on the surface of the water, permits drowning people to leverage their bodies so they can lift their mouths out of the water to breathe.
4. Throughout the Instinctive Drowning Response, drowning people cannot voluntarily control their arm movements. Physiologically, drowning people who are struggling on the surface of the water cannot stop drowning and perform voluntary movements such as waving for help, moving toward a rescuer, or reaching out for a piece of rescue equipment.
5. From beginning to end of the Instinctive Drowning Response people’s bodies remain upright in the water, with no evidence of a supporting kick. Unless rescued by a trained lifeguard, these drowning people can only struggle on the surface of the water from 20 to 60 seconds before submersion occurs.
(Source: On Scene Magazine: Fall 2006 (page 14))
This doesn’t mean that a person that is yelling for help and thrashing isn’t in real trouble – they are experiencing aquatic distress. Not always present before the instinctive drowning response, aquatic distress doesn’t last long – but unlike true drowning, these victims can still assist in their own rescue. They can grab lifelines, throw rings, etc.
Look for these other signs of drowning when persons are in the water:
* Head low in the water, mouth at water level
* Head tilted back with mouth open
* Eyes glassy and empty, unable to focus
* Eyes closed
* Hair over forehead or eyes
* Not using legs – Vertical
* Hyperventilating or gasping
* Trying to swim in a particular direction but not making headway
* Trying to roll over on the back
* Appear to be climbing an invisible ladder.
So if a crew member falls overboard and everything looks OK – don’t be too sure. Sometimes the most common indication that someone is drowning is that they don’t look like they’re drowning. They may just look like they are treading water and looking up at the deck. One way to be sure? Ask them, “Are you alright?” If they can answer at all – they probably are. If they return a blank stare, you may have less than 30 seconds to get to them. And parents – children playing in the water make noise. When they get quiet, you get to them and find out why.
(See a video of the Instinctive Drowning Response)
http://mariovittone.com/2011/07/video-of-instinctive-drowning-response/