Officer saves drowning toddler on holiday

A QUICK-thinking South Yorkshire police officer has been hailed a hero after rescuing a toddler from drowning on holiday.

PC Dan Radford, aged 37, had been relaxing in the pool in Kos, Greece, when he spotted a small boy ‘swimming strangely’ last month.

When he spotted that the boy had stopped moving he “went into autopilot” he said, and his police training kicked in.

He said: “I pulled this little lad out of the water and onto the pool side. His face was blue and he wasn’t moving.

“I thought to myself ‘I’ll be doing CPR at the side of the pool in a minute’.”

First he held the boy upright and gently squeezed his chest.

He said: “The water shot out of his mouth like a hosepipe, it was obvious he had swallowed a lot.

“Then a second later, the lad started crying, which is a good sign. If he had been left a moment longer he would have died.”

The boy’s parents quickly came over to thank Dan, who said: “His dad was completely frozen. He hugged me, started crying and said ‘I owe you my life – you have saved my son’s life’.

“The young lad had been wearing an inflatable life jacket. But after lunch he had taken it off and jumped back in the pool without realising.

“His parent’s backs had been turned for less than a minute and there were around 40 people about. It just goes to show how easy things like this can happen.”

The boy – who turned out to be just three years old – was taken to hospital where he stayed overnight. He has since made a full recovery, according to the story from the Star Newspaper.

Dan, was on holiday at the time with wife Louise, a detective constable with South Yorkshire Police, and his two sons.

#GreatWork Dan. It just goes to show police officers are #NeverOffDuty.

Photo from The Star