It may have been Friday the 13th, but Lucas Najanick's day proved to be as lucky as they get.
Lucas, 2, is alive and well today thanks to his mother and a neighbor who rescued and revived him after he fell into a backyard swimming pool.
Harrison police said the call for a possible drowning incident at Lucas' home, 15 Garfield St., came in about 3:15 p.m.
At that time, Fawn Deiseroth was in her second-floor home along River Avenue, which overlooks a parking lot and part of the backyard to the Najanick home. Her daughter, Savannah, 6, ran upstairs to alert her.
"The kids all play together and my daughter came up and said, 'Lukey is drowning in the pool,'" she said.
Deiseroth looked out the window and saw members of Lucas' family yelling for help.
"I just took off," she said.
A former EMT with Lower Burrell No. 1 Fire Company, Deiseroth, 31, ran to the backyard and found that Lucas' mother, Jessie, had pulled him out of the above-ground pool, which is about 3 1⁄2 to 4 feet deep.
"His mother had him on the ground outside the pool and he was blue," Deiseroth said. "She had been giving him breaths when I got there."
Deiseroth said she administered CPR as well and the little boy began to breathe again.
"He was breathing when the ambulance crew got here," she said.
Deiseroth did not know which hospital he had been taken to be but as she was speaking to news reporters at the scene, she received a call from Lucas' family telling her that he was fine.
As she spoke of the incident, the impact of it on her became apparent as she struggled to control her emotions.
"This was very upsetting, " Deiseroth said. "I've dragged them (victims) out of the river before when they've been gone. But I never, ever thought I would do that."
Details on how Lucas got out of his house and apparently scaled a small pool ladder putting himself in jeopardy, were not available.
Deiseroth said nobody else was in the yard, which is surrounded by a 6-foot stockade fence that she said is always locked.
Deiseroth said Lucas is an active little boy and she praised his parents, Michael and Jessie Najanick, who also have two other children.
"They are very good parents," Deiseroth said. "They don't even let the kids in the backyard without someone being there."
