Twelve-year-old Noah and his 8-year-old brother Weston saved 7-year-old Griffin Emerson as he drifted into the deep end in an apartment complex swimming pool.
The two heroic brothers who saved the life of a 7-year-old who nearly drowned in an apartment complex swimming pool near Flint, Michigan, are speaking with Inside Edition about springing into action that fateful day.
Griffin Emerson was playing in the shallow end of a pool when he drifted further into the deep end. Emerson was below the surface for nearly a minute.
That's when brothers, Noah, 12, and Weston, 8, saw him and jumped into action
“I saw him at the bottom of the pool and then I told Weston,” Noah tells Inside Edition.
Weston is seen on surveillance video diving into the pool to come to Emerson’s rescue.
“I dived in there then I grabbed him and his eyes were shut,” Weston says.
The brothers got Emerson out of the pool with the help of a man nearby.
The boy’s mother, Sylese Roche, called 911, telling the operator that Emerson was not breathing and turning blue.
“He was very lifeless for what felt like hours,” Roche tells Inside Edition.
In the video, Emerson’s mother is shown performing CPR on the boy until he begins coughing up water.
“I was just like really relieved that he was alive,” Noah says.
Brendan O’Melveny, chief aquatics officer at Imagine Swimming, tells Inside Edition that he was amazed by the life-saving actions of the two brothers.
“It’s truly remarkable for a 12-year-old and an 8-year-old to have that kind of awareness. A lot of adults don’t even realize how dangerous it can be when children are in or around the water,” O’Melveny says.
The two young heroes got high-fives from the Genesee County sheriff at a special ceremony where they were honored.
Noah and Weston were also reunited with Emerson and they each received a $100 check.
“It makes me feel good because I saved somebody and they call me a hero,” Weston says.
