It was a frightening experience for the parents of a little girl who fell into their backyard pool and stopped breathing. James and Janet Ludtka almost lost their daughter Hannah on Thursday. She and her dad were in the backyard watering flowers and he went inside for a minute to get a drink of water. When he came back out he found her floating in the pool. James immediately jumped in and pulled his daughter from the pool but she wasn't breathing. With his basic CPR training he worked furiously to try and revive her and called 911. Cheektowaga Police dispatcher Jeffrey Place received the frantic call from Hannah's dad. Place says he knew there was no time to waste. "You're sitting there, it's just a normal day and all of a sudden you pick up the phone and it's a frantic gentleman that found his child floating in the pool," Place said. "It's almost automatic, get the child out of the pool, lay her down on her back, tip head back open the airway, and then I just talk him through all the steps of CPR."
Dispatcher Place stayed on the line with James until emergency crews arrived. "At some point she started choking up some water, I had him turn her on her side, clear the airway out," Place said.
Hannah is now fine and her dad says he owes it all to Place. "He was awesome, he was able to talk me through, keep me calm enough to keep her going and she started breathing," James Ludtka said.
The dispatcher says it was everyone involved who saved her. "It's all in a days work, I'm glad the outcome was positive, that's the most important thing," Place said. "Everything worked out exactly as it was suppose to that day and it's very fortunate for the parents. I'm happy for them."
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