A Broken Arrow man is being called a hero after performing CPR on a 7-year-old girl, who nearly drowned at Oologah Lake.
“Something just told me I should go swimming today.”
Da'Veion Birge listened to his gut and it's a good thing he did.
“I remember hearing people screaming from the distance,” Birge said.
A little girl was drowning. He ran into the water with other strangers.
One woman got the girl to shore. Moments later the girl’s mother frantically ran back to the water.
“She said, no there’s another one, there's another one.”
But no one could find the second girl, so Birge dove in.
“My eyes were trying to look for her, but I couldn't see no body figure, no shapes, nothing.”
The girl went under, down deep. Eventually two women managed to pull her out.
He thought she was gone, but wasn't willing to give up.
“I started pumping her chest you know, putting air in that little girls lungs,” Birge said.
Using tips he remembered from high school CPR, moments later she was back.
“When she revived, how she looked at me,” Birge said. “It's like she can breathe again, that's the perfect feeling. I can never forget it.”
The 7-year-old's family is giving Birge updates.
Right now she's back home, but it may have been a different story if it weren't for his quick thinking.
“Anybody on that lake could've been me,” Birge said. “You got to give credit to that man up there.”
