By Leslie Williams Hale
The Naples Daily News
NAPLES, Fla. — To the kids in her neighborhood, she is known as Miss Sassy, but as of Thursday, she has earned a new name: hero.
Janice Johnson, 43, is being credited with saving the life of Stanley Saureur, her 6-year-old neighbor in Whistler’s Cove, after he fell into a pool on Thursday at the East Naples community. The boy’s sister called for Johnson, whom the neighborhood children call Miss Sassy.
“She said, ‘Miss Sassy, Miss Sassy, my brother passed out,’ ” Johnson said. “When I looked at her brother, I noticed he was blue. I immediately began to do CPR on him, and I started yelling for everyone to call the ambulance.”
Johnson’s training in CPR, a course she took about a year ago, kicked in immediately. She started rescue breaths and instructed another woman, Elida Javier, on how to deliver chest compressions to get the boy’s heart pumping again.
“When I got there, Janice was doing good CPR,” said Lt. Terry Anderson, of East Naples Fire Control District. “She was the difference.”
Stanley was in the water for roughly a minute, she guessed. She detected no pulse, and the boy was not breathing.
On Friday, Stanley’s father,Saurveur Philogene, said Stanley would stay in the hospital one more night for observation, but he was expected to be fine. Saurveur Philogene was not at the pool Thursday when his son fell in, but he said he is grateful for Johnson’s quick thinking.
“I think that’s something I really appreciate,” he said. “After my daughter took him out of the pool there was no one (else) there to help. She knew what to do.”
Johnson estimated it took four to five minutes to get Stanley breathing again — starting with a sudden gasp that made the people around her shout for joy.
“I did not look at the people around me because I knew my job was right in front of me,” she said. “The whole complex, I heard the screams, the cries, the shouts of relief.”
It may have felt that long before Stanley was breathing again, but Anderson said it was likely only a minute before his unit arrived from just down the road. That does not mean she was any less important, though, Anderson said.
“To tell the truth, if she hadn’t been there, it would have been touch and go,” he said.
Johnson herself had to get medical care after the emergency. She suffers from anxiety and is disabled, and she said the stress caused her to pass out. She was treated at Physicians Regional Collier Boulevard and released.
“All I wanted to do was to see him breathe again,” she said. “I was not going to stop until I brought him back.”
Johnson, a business student at Edison State College, learned CPR through her former employer, Physician’s Regional Medical Center.
Johnson, who is currently unemployed, said she took the free course when her daughter had a baby. She cares for her
2-year-old grandson, Markease Williams Jr. and seems to be something of a neighborhood godmother to the rest of the Whistler’s Cove children.
She has lived in the community the past four years, after moving there from Immokalee.
The children spend time on her front porch, where she makes up rhymes to help them with their school work and their English. Many of the children come from homes where English is barely spoken, if at all, and she takes pride in improving their speaking skills. That is where she got her nickname, she said.
“I know them very well - they’re like my own kids,” she said. “When I seen (Stanley) down, it was just like seeing my own child down. For the last four years I’ve been right there with them.”
Collier County Sheriff’s deputies, Collier County EMS and firefighters from East Naples Fire Control and Rescue Station 21 responded and transported the boy to NCH North Naples Hospital for evaluation shortly after they received the call at 5 p.m. Thursday.
“There were really three heroes yesterday,” said Capt. Domingo Chinea, another firefighter with East Naples Station 21. “The sister who pulled him out of the pool and the two ladies who performed CPR to buy us some time.”
The human brain can survive without oxygen for about eight minutes before suffering permanent damage. Depending on how long someone is in the water, even the quickest of emergency rescue workers might not be able to prevent permanent harm.
That’s why Johnson wants to use her experience — and Stanley’s — to promote the importance of learning CPR and teaching children safety around the water.
“I don’t want people to look at it as a pointing fingers thing,” said Johnson, who said it only took a couple of minutes for the curious Stanley to slip away from adults to the pool’s edge. “I want them to look at it as an educational wake-up call. I want them to know how important it is to learn how to save someone. We live in Naples - there’s water everywhere.”
Anderson is hoping in the near future to formally recognize Johnson for her efforts, along with the other first responders on scene Thursday.
But Johnson, in a move that seems characteristic of the woman known as Miss Sassy, said she wants to do something for Stanley.
“I want to plan something for him, like get him a little cake,” she said. “I want him to know Miss Sassy still loves him, and that he needs to be more aware next time. I want to let his family know they need to learn CPR. Out of all of those people there, no one knew CPR. I think everyone needs to learn CPR.”
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