Grandfather praises Jesus in rescue of baby girl from St. Helena Island pool

Little Treasure Jefferson was all smiles Monday morning, surrounded by the people who love her — and the people who saved her life.

The 1-year-old girl nearly drowned in an above-ground pool at her grandparents’ Peaches Hill Circle home on St. Helena Island on July 7.

Treasure is fully recovered now and back to being her usual lively self.

Emergency responders and representatives from the Lady’s Island-St. Helena Island Fire District, Beaufort County Emergency Medical Services, Beaufort Memorial Hospital’s Emergency Room and the Beaufort County dispatch team were all at the station Monday morning to meet Treasure and her family.

After a day in the pool with family that Thursday, everyone had come back into the house, but little Treasure couldn’t be found.

When her 11-year-old cousin Jarell saw her in the pool he called out, to her: “Treas?”

That’s when an alarm went off in their grandfather’s head.

Isaac Fripp, a staff sergeant with the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office, immediately ran to the pool as Jarell pulled the baby from the water where she had been lying face down. The baby had apparently climbed the ladder into the pool and drifted about 10 feet away by the time she was found.

“I ran over and she was still and her eyes were closed,” Fripp said. He fought Monday to keep tears from his eyes, recalling the terror he felt during the incident. “I was scared. I had never seen anything like that before.”

Fripp began CPR, using the training he had received from the Sheriff’s Office, while his daughter and Treasure’s aunt Shavonda Grant called 911.

Fire District firefighters with Engine 223 were at the home around 7:30 p.m., just 2 minutes and 31 seconds after the call, Fire Chief Bruce Kline said Monday morning at the gathering at Station 24.

Kline said Treasure was saved because “the system worked.” The teamwork between emergency response groups along with the early 911 call and immediate CPR were all factors in keeping the little girl with her family.

Firefighter Sam Kearns said that when the call came in, responders recognized the address as Fripp’s and went into action. Firefighters took over CPR and used an automated external defibrillator to monitor Treasure’s heartbeat.

“We could tell she was trying to cry,” Kearns said. “She was fighting.”

“When they started, she had no pulse and wasn’t breathing,” Fripp said. “All the time I was giving her CPR, I was asking Jesus to help us.”

Then he heard someone say there was a pulse.

Moments later, the ambulance arrived to take Treasure to Beaufort Memorial Hospital.

Still on his knees, Fripp “started praising Jesus.”

By the end of the night, Treasure was transported by helicopter to the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston where she was treated and released.

Fripp said his training proved to be very important that night.

He encouraged other families to take every precaution — learn CPR, take ladders out of pools or otherwise lock up pool areas when they’re not in use.

“Just be aware,” he said.