Mom saves son's life after near drowning

COCOA BEACH, Fla. (WOFL FOX 35) - Mother Leigh Andrews said family members rushed outside to search for her toddler son, Cash, in the backyard of their Cocoa Beach, Florida home.  They discovered that their worst nightmare had come true.  

"Oh my gosh, you know, he's in the bottom of the pool!" she explained. 

The toddler's half-brother, 15-year-old Ethan, says he and his aunt pulled the child out of the water, and he was lifeless.

"I was really scared, because he may not be like my full brother, but I still love him with my whole heart," he said.

"He was blue, he was limp, he was, yeah he wasn't breathing," Leigh added.

When mom got son in her hands, she said her EMT training kicked-in, and she began infant CPR on the pool deck, without hesitation. 

"I was really lucky that I knew what I had to do, and you know, it was just instinctual at that point to do it," she said.

Moments later, Cash began coughing, and crying. He was alive.

"It's never a good thing when you hear crying, but at that moment, I was crying tears of joy," Ethan said.

"It went from like the most horrible feeling ever, to the best feeling ever, really quickly," Leigh said.

"If no one here knew how to do CPR, that extra few minutes that it took for the paramedics to get here, that could have been his life," said Ethan.

Drowning is the leading cause of death in Florida among children, ages one to four.  This family said they escaped this summer time tragedy, because mom knew CPR.