Iraq vet's training saves toddler's life

Looking down into the pool, John Strang was sure the child was dead.

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Chris Thelen/Staff

John Strang stands with 2-year-old Byron Murray where a pool once sat and where Byron nearly drowned. Mr. Strang, an Iraq war veteran, performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation on the boy.

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Chris Thelen/Staff

Byron sits with his father, Chad Barker, at their home in New Holland. Mr. Barker says he doesn't think he could have done what his friend did.

What he did next kept 2-year-old Byron Murray from becoming a tragic newspaper headline.

On July 17, Mr. Strang, an Iraq war veteran, used CPR training he learned in the Army to resuscitate his friend's son, who climbed into a pool behind his house in rural Aiken County. Byron's father wasn't home at the time, but he admits that even if he had been there he couldn't have done what Mr. Strang did.

This shows why all parents and caregivers should learn CPR, said Dianne Lariscy, the director of health and safety services for Red Cross of Augusta.

"It's absolutely vital," she said. "We don't often have time to wait for an ambulance to get there."

That afternoon, Mr. Strang was working in New Holland, where he has been helping his friend Chad Barker take apart an old mobile home on his family's property that was being salvaged for scrap. Mr. Barker, a single father, was at work, and his son Byron and three older children played in the yard. A baby sitter and Byron's grandmother were inside.

One of the children ran up to Mr. Strang.

"Johnny, you need to get Byron. He's in the pool," the child said. "He's drowning."

Mr. Strang said he ran behind the house to an above-ground pool with sides about 5 feet high.

There was no splashing. Mr. Strang said at first he thought Byron wasn't in the pool.

Then he saw him at the bottom, face down, not moving.

"Blue as a Smurf," Mr. Strang said. "Unnatural. I've never seen that before."

He has seen a lot for a 24-year-old, though. Mr. Strang, a sergeant in the Army Reserve, served two tours in Iraq, the first during the 2003 invasion with the Augusta-based 319th Transportation Company, the second from 2004 to 2005 when he was attached to the Orangeburg, S.C.-based 414th Transportation Company.

Between basic training and a former job with the South Carolina Department of Corrections, Mr. Strang said he has taken at least four lifesaving classes.

When he saw Byron, instinct took over. He leaned over the side of the pool and pulled him out, ordering one of the children to call 911.

"Within a couple of seconds, I had already established in my head that he was dead," Mr. Strang said. "But I knew through training, when you pull someone out of the water like that, do CPR, no matter what you think. Just do it."

He put the child down and tilted his head back, clearing his mouth with a finger sweep. Covering Byron's nose and mouth with his own mouth, he blew in two quick breaths. Then he started chest compressions.

For two or three minutes, Mr. Strang said, he went through the cycle over and over, screaming and praying. Byron vomited. After more cycles, he coughed. Then his eyes twitched. He vomited several more times and finally started breathing again.

Byron went by ambulance to Medical College of Georgia Children's Medical Center and stayed overnight.

On Friday, he darted around his father's house like any toddler, giving Mr. Strang a thumbs-up, then trying to put a Spider-Man hat on his head over the cap he already wore.

His father said he has made a complete recovery.

The best he can figure, Byron must have shimmied up a support pole to climb into the pool, Mr. Strang said. Some plastic stairs had been pulled aside to keep him out.

The family got rid of the pool, leaving a bare circle in the yard, a reminder of a bad day that could have been much worse.

Mr. Barker, 24, said he's thankful Mr. Strang, whom he has known since high school, was there that day instead of him.

"I took the (CPR) class, but I didn't pay attention," he said. "I don't think I could have done it. I'd have frozen up."

It's a shortcoming he plans to correct.

The next time his employer, Carolina Tree Care, holds a class, he said, he'll be on the front row.

Reach Johnny Edwards at (706) 823-3225 or johnny.edwards@augustachronicle.com.