An off-duty Forsyth County deputy wasn’t just doing his job Sunday when he rescued a 2-year-old girl from his subdivision swimming pool.
He was also saving a friend’s child on Father’s Day.
“It’s a lot more special that it was a friend’s daughter,” deputy Mike Nelson said Wednesday as he recalled the incident.
Shortly before 4:30 p.m. Sunday, Nelson said he was sitting near the pool when the girl got in the water.
The girl’s father was in the pool with his other children, and her mother left the girl momentarily to throw away diapers, Nelson said. When the mother returned, the girl wasn’t on her chair.
“Her mom and dad were screaming,” Nelson said.
Nelson and the girl’s father saw the girl, got to her about the same time and pulled her from the water.
Then Nelson’s training took over. He performed CPR on the girl, and she started breathing properly again a couple of minutes later.
“Nelson contributed to the child being alive because of his quick response,” according to a post from the Forsyth County Sheriff’s Office.
Emergency crews arrived and took the girl to Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta at Scottish Rite for treatment.
Nelson said he talked with the girl’s mother Tuesday and said the child has received a “clean bill of health.”
It’s not the first time Nelson has rescued someone in distress from a body of water. He pulled two people from Lake Allatoona several years ago when he worked for another agency.
“We are all first responders,” he said. “You don’t think, you just act.
“I just went and did it.”
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