Four Yorkville High School students honored for saving the life of 4-year-old boy at local pool

YORKVILLE – Four Yorkville High School students saved the life of a 4-year-old boy who nearly drowned in a swimming pool in August.

The four students, who were serving as lifeguards at the private Grande Reserve subdivision clubhouse pool on Yorkville’s northeast side, were honored for their rescue effort at the Kendall County Board meeting Nov. 1.

Ashton Rosales, 16, a Yorkville High School junior; Gianni Gallichio, 17, a senior; and sophomores Finn Keane and Logan Weaver, both 15, were praised for their quick-thinking, skill and teamwork to save the boy’s life.

It was about 7:30 p.m. Aug. 5, near closing time with one family in the pool, when the 4-year-old boy jumped into the pool after his sister.

The lifeguards heard the splash and then a scream from the boy’s mother, who jumped into the water and pulled her son out of the pool.

Gallichio checked for a pulse while Rosales checked for breathing. They found neither and observed that the boy’s body was pale and his lips had turned blue.

Meanwhile, Keane and Weaver had come from the guard shack, and Gallichio shouted for them to call 911.

They did so immediately, as Gallichio began performing chest compressions on the boy while Rosales set up a ventilation mask and applying it over the victim’s mouth.

The tension mounted as Gallichio completed the first set of 30 compressions followed by two rescue breaths by Rosales. They repeated the cycle two more times.

On the fourth cycle, the boy opened his eyes, began to cry and started vomiting water.

“We felt very relieved because we knew he was getting to where he needed to be,” Rosales said.

The lifeguards then sat the boy up and allowed him to continue vomiting water. The boy’s mother then picked him up and held him until paramedics from the Bristol-Kendall Fire Protection District arrived.

Meanwhile, Weaver handed the phone to Gallichio to talk with 911, while Rosales and Keane waited with the boy and his mother.

The paramedics arrived only a minute or two after the boy became responsive. Gallichio and Weaver waived the paramedics to the scene.

The paramedics told the lifeguards that the boy would be all right and promptly transported him by ambulance to a local hospital. Rosales and Gallichio briefed police and other first-responders on the situation.

The boy made a quick recovery and is doing well.

The incident occurred in the pool’s shallow end, in about 3 1/2 feet of water.

“He plummeted in pretty quickly to the bottom,” said Mike Knoll, the pool manager, who credited his lifeguards for keeping cool heads.

Knoll also knew to stand back and let the lifeguards put their training to work.

“Gianni said, ‘I got this,’ ” Knoll said.

County officials lavished praise on the four teens.

“What amazing work these young men did,” County Board Chairman Scott Gryder said.

“Pretty courageous,” board member Ruben Rodrguez said.

Board member Brian DeBolt suggested the students might consider careers as first responders.

“You have what it takes to get the job done,” DeBolt said.

“You will never be forgotten,” board member Dan Koukol said, before relating the story of a similar situation in an Oswego pond many decades ago where the victim died.

“The results weren’t there,” Koukol said, revealing that the person who died was his brother.