CHENNAI: A Chennai-based photojournalist’s presence of mind saved the life of a 13-year boy who collapsed in a pool when celebrating Holi here on Thursday morning.
According to eye-witnesses, the boy collapsed in the pool with two others during the indoor celebration organised by a private agency, in which around 500 people participated.
While the other boys recovered soon after, one continued to remain unconscious before P Ravikumar, a photojournalist who was there to cover the event, performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) on the boy. “I was trained in first-aid skills including CPR a few years ago and so I performed CPR on him within a few minutes. When we saw that the boy was beginning to respond to the CPR and regain consciousness, we took him to a private hospital for treatment,” Ravikumar said. The boy was discharged later in the day.
While eye witnesses suspect that the boys may have suffered from electric shock, police maintained that the boy suffered from seizures. However, going by the police version, it remains unclear how the other two boys collapsed in the pool at the same time.
The mother of boy, who did not want to be named, told Express, “He is doing fine now. We want to give our son some time to recuperate before asking him questions about what had happened.”