4-year-old 'extremely critical' after being found in swimming pool


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WEST VALLEY CITY — A 4-year-old girl has been taken to a hospital in extremely critical condition after another young girl found her in a swimming pool Tuesday, police said.

Mariangel Hernandez discovered the 4-year-old in the pool and told her dad, Carlos Hernandez, who jumped in to try to save her.

"Her head was looking, like down, and then her feet were looking like up," Mariangel recalled tearfully.

Her dad then went into the water after the other girl, she said, describing her father pulling the 4-year-old out of the water.

When officers got to the girl, they found her barely responsive. They then "got her to throw up a lot of that water, and the officers just grabbed ahold of her and brought her out" to an ambulance, said West Valley City Police Lt. Steve Burke.

Investigators say the child's mom knew she was outside playing, but the mom might not have known the girl was in the pool.

If not for Hernandez jumping into the pool after her, the child "probably would still be missing … and definitely would have no chance of survival … so he's a hero today," Burke said.

Mariangel agreed.

"I was so surprised that he saved that girl, because that girl could have died if he wasn't there," she said.

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