A man involved in a life-saving swimming pool rescue has revealed how close a young boy came to death.
Earlier this week the Examiner reported that Dewsbury firefighter, Stefan Taylor , had swooped into action to revive a three-year-old drowning victim while he was on holiday in Turkey.
In a huge coincidence, Stefan worked with two other British firefighters, using their training to help deliver mouth-to-mouth and chest compressions to the unconscious toddler.
Now a fourth man has come forward to reveal it was him that scooped the lifeless child from the bottom of the pool at the SunConnect Liberty Hotel in Hisaranou.
David Bannon, who runs an electrical contracting firm in Brighouse, said he had been shaken up after the dramatic rescue and wanted to know if the child was ok.
And he revealed it had been discovered that the toddler had been under water for more than three minutes when he was saved.
He explained: “I was in the pool with my 14-month-old daughter, pushing her around in an inflatable.
“The Thomas Cook giraffe was walking around at the time so all the kids were out.
“It was very busy, there was probably a couple of hundred people around the pool.
“I looked down and I noticed the shape at the bottom of the pool.
“I managed to get my daughter out of the way and dived down to get him.
“I got him up to the side and there was water coming out of his mouth but there was no sign of life – it was horrendous.
“Stefan and the others worked on him for over two minutes and there was nothing happening.
“There was a look of despair all around that this one wasn’t coming back.
“I was thinking there was no chance as they’d been working on him for so long and the guys that had gone to get the defibrillator had been ages.
“A lot of the women around the pool were crying and they were trying to get the kids away.
“When he finally coughed back to life it was an unbelievable feeling.”
David, who has stayed in touch with Stefan since the holiday, said although the child spluttered back to life and began crying he still wasn’t moving and people remained concerned.
He said a bit of a cheer went up when the paramedics arrived to stretcher the boy away.
David said he had gone to check with hotel staff how the near tragedy had happened.
He said they had looked at CCTV footage from a pool camera and discovered what caused it.
“He was playing on a lilo with his brother,” said David.
“His brother has jumped off and he’s fallen in and hit the bottom.
“He was under water for three-and-a-half minutes until I saw him.”
Thomas Cook told the Examiner it was unable to comment on how the child was doing or anything about the incident.
In a statement earlier this week, West Yorkshire Fire service, claimed the boy had recovered and continued to enjoy his holiday.
