Smith: EMT training pays off for Santa Rosa man who saved boy from pool drowning

As an even younger man, Santa Rosa’s Andy Kilsheimer, who’s now 29, planned to become a paramedic.

Six years ago, Andy took emergency medical technician training at SRJC. Today he’s awfully glad he did.

Happy too, presumably, is the family of the 6-year-old boy who showed no signs of life when a friend of Andy’s pulled the child from the bottom of an apartment pool last Sunday - and Andy went to work trying to revive him.

Andy lives there at the Estancia Apartments on Old Redwood Highway with his wife, Ashley, and their 10-month-old daughter, Harper. Having long ago changed his mind about becoming a paramedic, Andy works in shipping, receiving and inventory at the Epicenter sports and entertainment complex.

Last Sunday he and Ashley had some friends over for an afternoon party. At the same time, a neighbor hosted a birthday party for a child and allowed the kids to use the pool.

At about 1:30 p.m., there were maybe eight people in the pool and an equal number on the deck. Ashley Kilsheimer sat on the edge, dipping her toddler’s legs in the water, when she spotted what appeared to be a child on the bottom of the pool.

She shouted to friend Eric Kepley, who was swimming. He dived for the little boy.

Andy was nearby and heard his wife call, “Andy, get over here!” He ran over and helped Eric lift the child onto the pool deck.

“He was completely lifeless,” said Andy, who since 2011 has been re-certified as an EMT every two years. He saw that the boy had no pulse and his eyes were rolled back.

Andy commenced chest compressions. After about ?30 seconds, the boy threw up some water and vomit. Andy rolled him onto one side and cleared his mouth, then resumed compressions.

He figures another minute had passed when “a ton more water and vomit came out.” Andy had begun a third round of compressions when the kid gasped deeply, opened his eyes and screamed wildly, inconsolably.

Andy told him after a few minutes, “Hey, you have to calm down, buddy.”

Ambulance paramedics and Rincon Valley firefighters ran up about then. The little boy who minutes earlier lay dead or nearly so at the bottom of the pool was hastened to a hospital, where he was checked out and released to his family.

His rescuer, Andy, said, “I’m just so happy he’s alive.”

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THAT GHASTLY CRASH happened Monday afternoon on Highway 12 west of Fulton Road, and Victoria Williams, who lives nearby and heard the head-on impact, hurried over to see if she could help.

Victoria was horrified to see how badly the three people in the two Toyotas were hurt. She learned later that eastbound driver Tristan Taliesin is suspected of being under the influence of drugs and allowing his Scion to drift over the center line and slam into the oncoming Camry driven by Elizabeth Ehrmann-Subia.

It was especially distressing to Victoria to receive news that Ehrmann-Subia was nearly five months pregnant and lost her baby. Victoria is the family doctor who barely three weeks ago brought her own healthy baby into the world as her husband drove her toward Petaluma Valley Hospital.

You can reach Staff Writer Chris Smith at 707-521-5211 or chris.smith@pressdemocrat.com.