A Bargersville firefighter and his family were spending the last day of their spring break lounging on a beach in St. Petersburg, Florida.
But the beach was cold and windy and the family decided to relocate their relaxation to a pool.
The twist of fate that led David Porter, battalion chief of the Bargersville Fire Department, and his family to the pool on the last day of their vacation saved a woman’s life.
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“I was just at the right place at the right time,” Porter said.
Porter was relaxing by the pool watching a few dozen people play games and splash around. He then noticed a commotion and his daughter ran up to him and told him a person was at the bottom of the pool.
The training Porter uses weekly as a first responder took over.
“It was chaotic, but your training kicks in, you know what to do and you just do it and hope you make a difference,” he said.
His actions that day did make a difference. Porter looked at the pool and saw a woman face down at the bottom of nine and a half feet of water, he said.
A young man swam down, grabbed the middle-aged woman and eased her to the side of the pool. Porter took over. He pulled her out of the water and began lifesaving techniques. People around him screamed for others to call 911. His wife realized no one had and made the call.
“A lot of people wanted to help but didn’t know what to do,” Porter said.
Porter checked the woman for vital signs. She was not breathing, and Porter could not find a pulse. He estimated that the woman had been in the pool and unconscious for three to four minutes. Clinically, she was likely dead by the time she was pulled out of the pool, Porter said.
“I knew she had drowned and I knew we had to start CPR and hope for the best,” he said.
Porter started CPR and was joined by a man he later learned was an off-duty first responder in Tampa, Florida. The duo administered three rounds of CPR, which was enough to restore her pulse and breathing, he said.
The woman was alert and talking when medics arrived. The resort where Porter and his family were staying told him the woman said she was lucky to be alive, Porter said.
“I didn’t do anything else anyone else wouldn’t have done that had the same training as me,” he said.
The next day, Porter and his family returned home to Indiana. But Porter suspects what may have happened if he was not there to help the woman, he said.
“Honestly, she probably wouldn’t have made it,” he said.
The brain needs oxygen to survive, and if the woman was without oxygen much longer she would have died or been severely handicapped because of the incident, he said.
“She may have survived, but she may have had brain injuries that may have affected her the rest of her life,” Porter said.
Porter estimates that he uses his CPR training at least weekly. It is a requirement of his job as a firefighter and first responder to keep up on his training, he said.
He also credits his family for helping with the save. His daughter first alerted him to the woman in distress and his wife was the person who called 911 amid the chaos.
“It was kind of a whole family effort, if you will,” Porter said.
Porter also believes fate had a hand in the save, when a chilly day at the beach drove them to the pool instead. They had just arrived at the pool and gotten settled when the woman almost drowned, he said.
“I was only there 20 minutes. The stars aligned for this lady,” Porter said.
Here in Indiana, people who hear about his March 21 save have lauded him as a hero, he said.
That designation is not really accurate, Porter said.
“No, I was just doing my job.”
