SPRING, Texas — What was supposed to be a nice day at the pool quickly took a serious turn for the Arias family Tuesday.
The family's two oldest daughters noticed a 5-year-old boy had gone underwater at their community pool on Breckenridge Village Drive.
"The way he was just down there in the water," said 13-year-old Dayana Chavez. "His head was all the way down."
Dayana wasn't sure if the boy was playing.
"I shaked him," she said. "My older sister, she kind've pulled him from his shirt to see if he was choking. His head, like his head would just go down. He wouldn't move. And then finally I pulled him out and he was just foaming."
Dayana screamed for her dad who rushed over to help. He pulled the boy out the pool and started doing CPR with the help of the boy's mother.
"I started pressing on him more and told her to start blowing in his mouth," William said.
The Arias family said a group gathered around them and everyone tried to help as best as they could.
Fortunately, the boy was able to regain consciousness.
"We just kept going until he started moaning, and then throwing up, and then opening up his eyes," William said.
"I felt relieved because thank God he survived," Dayana said.
Harris County Precinct 4 deputies had responded to a drowning call just a few hours before this one.
"It's up to us as adults to make sure we don’t take our eyes off them," Constable Mark Herman said. "We can’t afford to. In just a split second, they can drown."
The Arias family said although traumatic, they were grateful to be at the right place at the right time to help save the 5-year-old's life.
"Very fortunate, happy for the family, for the little boy and happy that my daughters took the initiative to pull him out the water," William said. "They didn’t know what was going on."
Constable Herman tweeted the following swimming safety tips: