A scary moment turned into an act of bravery from two young boys who helped save a 7-year-old who was drowning at an apartment swimming pool in Michigan.
The heroes, 12-year-old Noah Roche and his brother Weston Woods, 8, spoke with ABC News’s “Good Morning America” about their actions that saved 7-year-old Griffin Emerson’s life.
Griffin shared that he had been playing in the shallow end of the water when he decided to take off his floaties and face the deeper waters as a way to “prove” that he could swim.
However, the waters proved too much, and surveillance footage from the Genesee County Sheriff’s Office showed Griffin struggling to stay above water.
The video shows other people in the pool continuing with their activities, failing to notice Griffin struggling for nearly a minute as he sank to the bottom of the pool.
However, Noah noticed, and the boy quickly began trying to help Griffin.
“I saw him, and I just knew that he wasn’t OK,” Noah told GMA. “I saw him at the bottom of the pool, and then I didn’t know if he was just playing down there or something. So I just told Weston to get in and dive down to see if he’s OK.”
Weston added that he could see Griffin’s head was “going up and down” and that he “knew he wasn’t OK.”
Acting quickly, Weston jumped into the pool to grab Griffin and bring him to the surface. The boys’ mother, Sylese Roche, called 911 after seeing that the 7-year-old wasn’t breathing and had turned blue.
“[Griffin’s] mom ran over to him and instantly started CPR,” Roche said.
After performing life-saving measures, the boy began to breathe once more, and the video shows his mom rubbing his back as he coughed up water from the pool.
“I was scared I was going to drown. It felt all weird. I spit out some water, and that’s it,” Griffin said afterward.
The boy was taken to a local hospital and was released within 36 hours.
As for the boys who saved his life, the Genesee County Sheriff’s Office honored Noah and Weston with a ceremony.
To avoid drowning, the sheriff’s office says to always know CPR and your surroundings and to teach your children about safety when swimming.
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