GARDEN GROVE : Council Honors 2 Who Revived Twins

What Cathy McDonald knew about cardiopulmonary resuscitation she picked up from the first-aid section in the telephone directory and a health class in high school.

Herb Roman never had any formal CPR training either. But being a plumber who works around swimming pools and wishing to be prepared for emergencies, he solicited lifesaving tips from a firefighter friend.

McDonald, 27, and Roman, 28, pooled their talents Aug. 13 to save the lives of Jeremy and Joshua Barnett, 21-month-old twins who nearly drowned in the swimming pool at their Hazard Avenue townhouse complex.

Both toddlers were unconscious when their mother, Rebecca, retrieved them from the pool.

McDonald and Roman performed mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. In 90 seconds that seemed much longer, both say, the boys started gasping for breath, coughing and spitting water.

Paramedics arrived, and the youngsters were treated at a local hospital. They later developed pneumonia.

Both seem to have recovered fully, parents say.

McDonald, who lives in the townhouse complex in the 9600 block of Hazard Avenue, and Roman, a resident of Rancho Santa Margarita, were honored this week by Garden Grove City Council members for saving the two lives.

“I was terrified the whole time,” McDonald said Wednesday. “I knew what to do, but I kept wondering if I could do it. I knew I had to push on his chest, but how hard do you push? How much air do you breathe into his lungs?

“If it turned out the other way (and the children didn’t survive), I could never have gotten over it. I would always have wondered what more I could have done.”

David Barnett, father of the toddlers, said there is no doubt that quick action, first by his wife, then by McDonald and Roman, saved his sons.

Roman was at the complex working on pool equipment at the time of the accident.

McDonald and Roman “most definitely saved their lives,” said Barnett, a maintenance mechanic. “If not for them, I would have two dead youngsters. They are very blessed to get a second chance. There are not words in this world to tell them how grateful I am.”

McDonald, a self-employed cake decorator and floral designer, said she was ironing in her home when she was alerted to trouble by the sound of the Barnetts’ 8-year-old daughter’s footsteps pounding furiously on the deck.

“I went running out. My first thought was: ‘Oh my God, both kids were dead.’ Joshua was lying at the top of the steps. He was the closest, and I ran to him first.

“I couldn’t hear his heart beating,” she continued. “I’m told I screamed: ‘Do CPR on the other one; I’ll get this baby!’ ”

McDonald, who has two children whom she describes as good swimmers, said she was unprepared for the sight of the boys “turning bluish-purple to their toes” or the difficulty in prying open their mouths because their jaws were so tightly clenched.

“If there was anything good to come out of this, it would be for people to know how important it is to attend a CPR class or at least read the front pages of the telephone book in the first-aid section. It was enough,” she said.

“You can’t be afraid to act. You can’t just stand around.”