MORGAN HILL –– A quick-thinking lifeguard saved a 7-year-old boy from drowning Wednesday afternoon, earning praise from Santa Clara County sheriff’s deputies and his family.
The incident occurred at 12:30 p.m. at Thousand Trails, an RV park on Uvas Road. Deputy Rich Rutman said he received a call about a drowning victim, but when he arrived, firefighter/paramedics were caring for a “living 7-year-old boy.”
The lifeguard, Kevin Wallace, 20, of Gilroy, spotted the boy on the bottom of the shallow end of the pool, pulled him from the water, unconscious and not breathing, and began CPR. After three to five minutes the boy began to cough and to throw up water from his lungs. Paramedics arrived and took over.
The boy, whose name was not released, was airlifted by CALSTAR to Santa Clara Valley Medical Center. He was not a resident of the park but was part of a school outing, officials said.
“Kevin did everything right and saved this boy’s life,” Rutman said in a report to Terrance Helm, the sheriff’s spokesperson. “Kevin reacted with a professionalism and quick thinking under stress that I would hope any of our own deputies would do.”
Rutman said Kevin, a 2002 Gilroy High School graduate, got out of the way when paramedics arrived and never called attention to what he had done.
“Staff members had to point out who saved the boy,” Rutman said. “Kevin was humble and sincere in his duty as a lifeguard.”
Kevin is the son of Deputy Gary Wallace and a student at Humboldt State University majoring in marine biology. Kevin said nothing like this has happened before in his four years of lifeguarding, but he knew what to do because of extensive training.
“It was just basic knowledge,” Kevin said three hours after the rescue. “It was what I was taught.”
Rutman recommended that Kevin be given a citation “worthy of his act,” which he described as heroism.
”I’m extremely proud of my son,” Wallace said.
