John Barkley, a high school student and junior member of the Clayton Fire Company in Delaware, is being hailed as a hero after he saved the life of a four-year-old boy. Barkley was attending a party when he heard a commotion across the street. A young boy had fallen into a pool and wasn’t breathing. Barkley didn’t even hesitate and ran to help right away; he performed CPR and was able to save the child.
Since then, Barkley has spoken at his high school’s life skills class and talked about the rescue and his training as a junior fire department member. When asked about the rescue, Barkley said seeing a lifeless body was really shocking and scary. He had only ever watched medical professionals perform CPR during training sessions but had never done one himself. Nevertheless, Barkley says “It’s definitely changed my life as I now know what I’m capable of.” Barkley is glad he took part in CPR training, because without it, that little boy could have died. The child went on to make a full recovery and graduated from kindergarten.
As for Barkley, he highly recommends everyone should go through CPR training. “Anybody can do it with the same training,” he said. “It’s definitely fun.”
