CLOVIS, California -- An off-duty police officer said it was God who put him in position to save a drowning child's life.
Clovis Police Corporal Curtis Shurtliff and his family were wrapping up a camping trip at Dinkey Creek in Fresno County, California last week , when he heard screams near their campsite. When they ran to investigate, they found a five-year-old boy who had just been pulled from the water.
The child was not breathing.
"I checked for a pulse. There was no pulse," Shurtliff told KMPH. "I looked at the kid’s pupils. They were fixed and they were dilated."
That is when the former former paramedic and Navy veteran got to work.
After 30 minutes of CPR, Shurtliff said he turned to the child's mother and asked her about faith.
"I wasn’t gonna give up on this kid," he told KMPH. "I looked back at the mother and asked her, ‘Do you believe in God as Jesus and your Savior?’ She said ‘Yes, I do.'"
Those gathered around the child began to pray. It was then, Shurtliff said, he felt the child's pulse.
"As soon as they were done, I said, ‘In Jesus’ name I pray,’ I felt a pulse," he said.
Emergency crews finally made it to the campground and took the child to the hospital.
Shurtliff was able to visit the child over the weekend.
The child's condition has not been released.
