Local News

'Definitely a miracle': Child recovers from near-drowning

12-year-old D'Angelo Whitaker is recovering at home now, a week after he nearly drowned. His father's CPR may be what saved his life.

Posted Updated

By
Bryan Mims
, WRAL Reporter
WAYNE COUNTY, N.C. — A 12-year-old boy is back home in Wayne County tonight after nearly drowning in a neighbor's pool. His parents are calling it a miracle.

D'Angelo Whitaker had been at Duke Hospital since Sunday, when his father pulled him out of the water. Local first responders say CPR played a critical role in saving his life.

D'Angelo and his four siblings were at a friend's pool Sunday afternoon. As he remembers it, he hit his head on the bottom and blacked out.

His dad, Paul Whitaker, pulled him out after one of D'Angelo's sisters noticed he had not resurfaced. D-Angelo had no pulse, no breath.

His father, a former Marine and pastor, started CPR as the neighbor got a 9-1-1 dispatcher on the phone.

"I was just praying, praying, praying, because that's the worst feeling I've ever had in my life," Paul Whitaker told WRAL News.

"It was like fighting for a pulse for like seven minutes. Fighting for a pulse, praying, begging God to just bring him back, bring him back, don't take him."

When paramedics arrived, they had to use a defibrillator on D'Angelo, which sends electric shocks to restore the heart's rhythm.

His mother, Shafaye Whitaker, kept praying.

"I was holding out all belief that he was gonna be okay," she said, "but I'm not gonna lie – when they shocked him, I thought, 'Oh my goodness, this is it.""

D-Angelo first went to a hospital in Goldsboro, then Greenville, then to Duke University Hospital.

"They can't explain how he's alive," Paul Whitaker said. "They can't explain how he's not brain dead."

Wayne County spokesman Joel Gillie said if not for CPR in those first minutes, the outcome might have been far worse.

"Any bit of CPR you can do before EMS gets there will improve the outcome," Gillie said "It's simple to learn."

He said 9-1-1 dispatchers in the county are trained to offer CPR instructions over the phone.

Aside from being wobbly, D'Angelo says he feels fine, but he's in no hurry to go back in the water

"Not for awhile," he said, but one day, he says, he will.

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