Officer honored as good Samaritan
OPD officer on vacation helps save 5-year-old
Ishmael Hernandez
A reserve Orlando police officer who was at the right place at the right time did the right thing and was honored Monday.The officer received an inaugural good-Samaritan award for breathing life back into a child after a near-drowning.The Orange County Safe Kids Coalition presented the first annual Jim Young Good Samaritan Award to Ishmael Hernandez.On March 21, 2012, Hernandez was off duty and vacationing in Jupiter Beach in Palm Beach County when he was able to resuscitate a 5-year-old who was found unresponsive and face down in a lagoon.Hernandez and another person pulled the child out of the water and continued working on the boy until medical personnel arrived to take him to a hospital. He is expected to make a full recovery.Hernandez said the credit shouldn't go to him, but to the child who alerted him of the boy in the water."That 10-year-old boy, he is the one that deserves the credit for this," said Hernandez. "Had he not seen his friend go in and where he went and the persistence of him calling for help."The award was named for Safe Kids Coalition member Jim Young who died unexpectedly in Oct. 2011.18237856
ORLANDO, Fla. —
A reserve Orlando police officer who was at the right place at the right time did the right thing and was honored Monday.
The officer received an inaugural good-Samaritan award for breathing life back into a child after a near-drowning.
The Orange County Safe Kids Coalition presented the first annual Jim Young Good Samaritan Award to Ishmael Hernandez.
On March 21, 2012, Hernandez was off duty and vacationing in Jupiter Beach in Palm Beach County when he was able to resuscitate a 5-year-old who was found unresponsive and face down in a lagoon.
Hernandez and another person pulled the child out of the water and continued working on the boy until medical personnel arrived to take him to a hospital. He is expected to make a full recovery.
Hernandez said the credit shouldn't go to him, but to the child who alerted him of the boy in the water.
"That 10-year-old boy, he is the one that deserves the credit for this," said Hernandez. "Had he not seen his friend go in and where he went and the persistence of him calling for help."
The award was named for Safe Kids Coalition member Jim Young who died unexpectedly in Oct. 2011.