A photographer’s presence of mind saved the life of a boy who collapsed in a makeshift pool while celebrating Holi in the city on Thursday.
A celebration was organised in a residential complex in Vepery. In the indoor celebration, the children were spraying water colours at each other in the pool, which had knee-deep water. When the celebrations were at their peak, four boys fell into the pool. The photographers who reached the venue to click photos of the festival noticed the boys lying in the pool.
While three of the four managed to get out of the water, a fourth did not. Realising that there was something amiss, the photographers alerted the organisers of the event. Presuming the boy had been electrocuted, the photographers told the revellers to shut down power supply.
Unconscious in pool
The boy, around 10 years old, was unconscious when he was taken out of the pool. While other revellers were clueless on how to resuscitate him, P. Ravikumar, an agency photographer, performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation on the boy. “The boy was breathless and everybody who stood around had no idea about first aid. I immediately did cardiopulmonary resuscitation and mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. Within a few minutes, he started breathing again,” Mr. Ravikumar said.
The boy was taken to a hospital. The family said he had a history of seizures.