Kathy Miller and Marc Meyer were honored at Tuesday’s Board of
Supervisors meeting for giving CPR to Kaden Rondy, who had fallen
into the family pool Sept. 21.
With assistance from San Benito County Sheriff Curtis Hill, state Senator Bruce McPherson’s office awarded Hollister residents Kathy Miller and Marc Meyer special commendations for their efforts in saving the life of an 11-month-old boy who nearly drowned.
Miller and Meyer were honored at Tuesday’s Board of Supervisors meeting for giving CPR to Kaden Rondy, who had fallen into the family pool Sept. 21.
“They took what was a tragic incident and turned it into something special,” Hill said.
Miller, who took classes in infant CPR about 10 years ago when she was a teacher, said she and Meyer did what she hoped anybody would do in a similar situation.
“There was no time to be scared. You know what you have to do, and you just go into this zone and you do it,” she said. “I wasn’t scared until it was all over.”
Miller and Meyer, who had met only in passing before the incident, responded to the screams of Kaden’s mother Allison.
When Miller heard the screams from next door, she first thought it might be kids playing in the pool. But something seemed different.
“I heard someone screaming ‘Help me, help me, help me!'” Miller said.
She ran to her fence where she saw Meyer and Allison pulling Kaden’s already-limp body out of the pool. Miller ran out of her house and through her neighbor’s home.
A minute earlier, Meyer, who lives on the other side of the house, was putting away his lawn mower when he heard something that sent a chill down his spine.
“I heard the mother scream ‘Oh my God,’ followed by a more frantic ‘Oh my God!'” he said.
The 6-foot 4-inch Meyer jumped over the fence, ran to the pool and placed Kaden on the grass where he tried to get the water out of toddler’s lungs and started CPR.
“I still have this very vivid image of this child who was purple and blue from the waist up,” Meyer said. “I knew I had to get air into him and I just started giving him breaths and compressions.”
After exchanging a few words, Miller and Meyer worked together giving CPR to the toddler.
After what seemed like a long time, they said, Kaden’s color began to return and he began to spit up water and breathe a little on his own.
“When we finally got the water out of his lungs and he started breathing on his own, it felt like the weight of the world was lifted off of our shoulders,” Meyer said.
As Kaden started to come around, paramedics arrived on the scene and took him to Hazel Hawkins Hospital where he made a full recovery.
Miller and Meyer both shied away from the idea of being thought of as heroes.
“When you get into these situations you don’t have any options,” Meyer said. “You can either stand around and watch this baby die or you could do something.”
