A Louisiana boy saved his two twin cousins from drowning in a family pool Sunday, even though he did not know how to swim.
Branson Lee, a first-grader in Calhoun, Louisiana, is being praised for pulling his relatives, Kaden and Isaac Kelley, 2, from the pool Sunday evening after a pool party where the door to the area was left unlocked, the Monroe News-Star reported.
Courtney Lee, Branson's mother, told the newspaper it only took minutes in the middle of saying goodbye to her sister before the twins, who were watching television, wandered to the pool area and were face down when Brandon went into action.
Branson, who does not know how to swim, jumped into the shallow end of the pool and managed to reach the twins and pull them out, ABC News reported.
"My nephew happened to be walking outside because his little brother, who is the same age as my boys, was wandering outside too," Jeanie Kelley told the News-Star. "He saw his brother (walk toward the pool) and grabbed him, and that is when he saw my babies. And he ran outside and grabbed them and pulled them up out of the pool and started yelling for us."
She said the boys were blue and limp and called their survival a "total miracle."
Family members told ABC News that they had not realized that the boys had made their way to the pool area in such a short time.
"We ran out there and they were laying on the side of the pool and were completely blue and completely lifeless," Kelley said, ABC News noted. "My husband immediately fell down to his knees and started doing compressions and CPR. He is a first responder."
The twin boys started showing signs of consciousness again just when emergency crews arrived, and they were taken via helicopter to University Health in Shreveport, Louisiana. The twin boys were playing with each other and appeared to be in good health Monday, the News-Star stated.
Courtney Lee told the News-Star that she was proud of the way her son reacted and his determination to save his cousins.
"He said he just dove in," Courtney Lee said to the newspaper. "All he knew is he had to try to save them ... It was a miraculous thing to know that at 6-years-old he didn't just scream and run away. He didn't just ignore it or stand there in shock. He just immediately acted and allowed God to do the rest."