Lifeguard saves boy

HUNTERSVILLE, N.C. -- The parents of a 7-year-old are thankful their son is alive. He was not breathing after a lifeguard pulled him from the bottom of a Huntersville pool Sunday. Police say the lifeguard's next actions saved his life.

Jacob Robinson, 17, was sitting in the lifeguard chair Sunday as he does nearly every day at the Hampton Ridge neighborhood pool. He's a quiet, soft spoken young man whose quick, decisive actions Sunday afternoon saved the life of a neighborhood boy.

This is Robinson's first year as a lifeguard and he never imagined his training would be tested so soon and so dramatically.

"He was unconscious. He wasn't breathing. He had blue lips. He didn't look very good," Robinson said.

He saw Matthew Abernathy at the bottom of the pool's deep end. The boy was motionless.

"It was very, very scary, but luckily the lifeguard had him," the boy’s mother said.

Robinson dove into the pool, pulled the boy out of the water, and started performing rescue breaths.

"He came to (and) started throwing up a little bit,” Robinson said. “By that time the paramedics had arrived."

Paramedics rushed the boy to Presbyterian Hospital were he spent the night in intensive care. His mother Donna Abernathy says doctors expect he will make a full recovery.

"We're hoping one more night and that's it,” she said. “We want to bring him home."

Abernathy says her boy must be doing better because he's already asking for his favorite toys from home.

"He asked me to bring puppy and he asked me to bring race cars. And Kurt Busch won last night so he was like can you bring me his car," she said.

From the hospital, Abernathy has a message for the young man who saved her son.

"I never said thank you and I wanted to say thank you to him,” she said. “He did what he needed to do and I have Matthew. That's all that matters is Matthew's safe. He's safe with us."