A 10-year-old from Georgia is being hailed a hero this week after her quick thinking saved her toddler sister from drowning.
Jayla Dallis (10) and her little sister, [3]-year-old Kali Dallis, were swimming at the pool of the Chamblee apartment complex on May 15.
Surveillance footage from the apartment complex shows Kali walking into the shallow end of the pool with an inflatable device around her waist. As she jumped off of one of the top steps, the momentum put her head-first into the water, causing her to body to be stuck upside down in the inner tube.
In the video, Kali is able to escape the inner tube, but the water was too deep.
Jayla was in the deeper end of the swimming pool when Kali first went under. When she realized her little sister was under the water, drowning, she raced into the swimming pool to pull her out.
“She was, like heavy, so I had to pull her by her hair, and then I grabbed her by her waist and pulled her up,” Jayla told Good Morning America.
Once pulled from the pool, the girls’ aunt along with a staff member of the apartment complex frantically administered CPR, while another witness called 911.
Police sergeant, Ed Lyons, received the call and rushed to the scene. The father of a little girl himself, Lyons says he felt particularly connected to the case.
“I saw my little girl laying there, same kind of little bathing suit she wears,” Lyons told WAFB-9. “Same little hair pulled up in a little bun up top. You know you kind of have to push past that and do what you’re trained to do.”