6-year-old St. George girl back home after near drowning


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ST. GEORGE — No matter how well she does in school, Jenny Toloa is just like any other 6-year-old. She can’t wait for after school.

“She only wants to go spend time with her friends. That’s what she likes,” said Mitag Toloa, Jenny’s mother.

That’s why when Jenny was invited to her friend’s birthday pool party in their St. George neighborhood this past Tuesday, it’s all she could talk about.

“She was excited. She couldn’t wait to go. She loves to swim,” Toloa said.

However, it might be a good thing Jenny doesn’t remember most of it. At least not like her friends do.

“I was kind of swimming, and I looked over and she was underwater,” said Christine Burt, 10, who is the older sister of Jenny’s friend. “I was the only one who saw her under water and then I called for help.”

Jenny was at the bottom in the deep end.

Christine and another friend dove to the bottom to try and get her out of the water.

“I tried to pull her out, but I couldn’t because it was hard because of the water,” Christine said.

However, they were able to bring her up to the surface, where Christine’s mother, Samantha Burt, reached in, grabbed her, and pulled her to the side of the pool.

“She was limp and wasn’t breathing,” Samantha Burt said. “It happened so fast. One minute, everybody was playing happily in the pool and just within seconds, I heard someone yell that Jenny was drowning.”

Burt started CPR while someone else called 911.

“I said a prayer before that just to try and help her,” Christine said.

“I was scared because she wasn’t, like, breathing and she wasn’t moving her body,” said 6-year-old Faith Burt, who was celebrating her birthday at the pool and is kindergarten classmates with Jenny. “I wanted her to be alive.”

The 911 call came into the St. George Consolidated Communications Center, where dispatcher Jessie Bundy helped guide them on what to do.

Christine Burt, 10, was the only person who saw 6-year-old Jenny Toloa underwater in the pool during a birthday party on March 13, 2018. Christine and another friend dove to the bottom to try and get her out of the water. (Photo: KSL TV)
Christine Burt, 10, was the only person who saw 6-year-old Jenny Toloa underwater in the pool during a birthday party on March 13, 2018. Christine and another friend dove to the bottom to try and get her out of the water. (Photo: KSL TV)

“That’s part of our training. The person I talked to did a very good job,” Bundy said.

Jenny started breathing normally again, but Bundy wanted to make sure.

“They told me she was breathing, so I had them count her breaths to me to make sure it was effective breathing, and it was,” Bundy said. “Then she started to vomit, so I had them turn her on her side, just so she doesn’t choke on it.”

Bundy says a St. George police officer and paramedics arrived within three minutes.

“It always feels like a really, really long time. It felt longer than that when I was on the phone, but I just felt a lot of relief when they said she was breathing,” said Bundy.

Jenny was taken to the hospital.

She spent two days there, just to be sure, but is back home with her family.

“It was God. God saved her life, not me,” Samantha Burt said. “We went to visit them when they came home, and I felt such a relief to be able to pick her up and hug her, even if she looked at me like, what are you doing,” she said with a laugh.

Now, Jenny says she can’t wait to go back to school and see her friends again.

Her mother is just happy she’s still alive and so many people came together to make that happen.

“I’m so thankful for them. I’m grateful they could save Jenny’s life,” Toloa said. “If they wouldn’t have saved Jenny’s life, she wouldn’t be here.”

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Alex Cabrero
Alex Cabrero has been reporting for KSL-TV for nearly two decades. He has covered a variety of stories over the years from a variety of places, but he particularly enjoys sharing stories that show what's good in the world.

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