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A young boy is lucky to be alive after his leg became stuck in a suction pipe leaving him underwater for nine minutes.

The 12 year old was trapped underwater for more than nine minutes as rescuers tried desperately to pull him free.

Police released footage taken in the swimming pool at the Avista Resort in California, showing two boys playing around in the “lazy river” on March 19.

The boys can be seen exploring the base of the pool before they pry the safety grate off, reports Yahoo 7.

The harrowing footage shows adults jump into the pool from different directions and attempt to get his leg free.

Police were immediately called, but with time an urgent factor, one adult submerged himself again and again to provide the boy with mouth-to-mouth.

Police said the boy is alive and in hospital, but did not reveal any further details about his condition.

UPDATE 1 May

Alyssa Pappas said it was a very traumatic experience and a total miracle that her son is still alive today.

Evan spent three days in a medically induced coma and eight days on a ventilator.

The boy lifted the grate to retrieve a piece of his goggles.

She wants to make sure their horrible experience is a warning to other parents.

It was scary. It seemed to happen fast but take forever at the same time,’ Pappas said. ‘Just to see him being pulled out of the water, it was very hard.’

‘It should’ve been safe,’ she added. ‘No one should be able to lift something so dangerous.’

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  • Very scary indeed. Hope he is ok moving forward.

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  • Video is unavailable. It’s a miracle he survived

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  • So so scary ! Hope that more safety measures have been put in place
    The article states Evan spent three days in a medically induced coma and eight days on a ventilator, not how is doing now. I hope and pray he’ll recover totally, without any brain damage !

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  • That would have been terrifying!

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  • I’m glad the boy survived. Really scaring!!

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  • I saw this on Facebook it would’ve been such a scary situation for everyone involved!

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  • What a scary situation! He is one very lucky little boy. I must say though, that I am concerned that no one noticed that they were playing with safety gates, etc. before everything went wrong. Why didn’t someone stop them?


    • Hopefully new measures are in place for safety.

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  • I can’t believe he survived after being in the water for so long. Hope he makes a full recovery and never tries anything like this again. Where was the adult supervision though?

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  • How terrifying!! I’m amazed he survived! What quick thinking about the mouth to mouth. I hope he has a full recovery

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  • how terrible, I am so surprised he survived. But must ask, where were the parents and where were the lifeguards???

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  • What a terrible situation. Thank God he was saved. The two kids were very curious and obviously wanting to explore underwater. I’d like to think somebody was watching what they were doing. However, glad the young boy was saved and good on the emergency services.

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  • Of course would have been terrifying at the time – good responders in the community and police.

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  • i am shocked that none of the staff at the centre seemed to go into the water to help him. it was a random swimmer, a man in normal clothes and 3 police officers in full uniform and where was the lifeguard?? Have I missed something here?

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  • This must have been so scary !! 9 minutes is a very long time, hope it didn’t cause any brain damage. Thank God for this adult who submerged himself again and again to provide the boy with mouth-to-mouth.

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  • I hope he’s ok. It must have felt like days.

    Reply

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