Family thankful for heroes who saved his little girl from frozen pond
By Tori Mason
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ARAPAHOE COUNTY, Colorado (KCNC) — The 6-year-old girl who fell through a frozen pond over the weekend is back home with her family. Zakiyah Williams was released from the hospital Tuesday afternoon and was welcomed by the people responsible for saving her life.
“I’m overwhelmed and thankful that my daughter is still here,” said Walter Williams, Zakiyah’s father. “When I saw [first responders] on the video performing their duties, you can see the passion and emotion in them by what they were saying. ‘Come on, baby. Come on, baby. Yes. Come on. Come on, sweetheart. Come on.’ Like they were talking to their own children.”
Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Deputy David Rodriguez, along with Deputy Blaine Moulton and Deputy Justin Dillard, began life-saving CPR until South Metro Fire Rescue medics arrived.
They said Zakiyah’s rescue was nothing short of a miracle.
“I saw some of the headlines said that, you know, ‘three deputies brought her back to life’ and we don’t raise people from the dead. We do life-saving measures, the things that we were trained to do,” said Dillard. “We were all the instruments that day, but God was the hand.”
Zakiyah is feeling much better and was able to thank the deputies in person Tuesday. She also gave a big hug to Dusti Talavera, the stranger who jumped into the pond and pulled Zakiyah and her siblings from the water.
“I didn’t even realize it was ice on the water. I was worried about the children. That somebody’s babies, you know? I saw their hands. That was it. I just saw their hands reaching out and they needed my hand,” said Talavera. “It doesn’t always work out that way. I’m so glad it did.”
Over the weekend, rescue agencies received multiple calls for people and animals going out onto ice covered bodies of water. While surfaces might look reliable, a lot of the bodies of water in the metro area have thin ice on the surface.
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