Eleven-year-old Angel Rivera was just six when he learned how to swim.
And chances are that this early start in the water contributed to his heroic rescue of teenage girl Usely Michel in a community pool.
The pool was supposed to be closed, but many people, parents and children alike, had hopped the low fence to bathe in the cool water. But in the pool was a figure that had sunk to the bottom.
"I looked in the pool, and there she was, her body looked like the shape of a star," Angel told Sun Sentinel.
Angel said he heard the girl's sisters suddenly start crying and yelling.
"I went and jumped in and pulled her out and gave her to her sisters," Rivera said. "I had to save her life because her sisters were screaming."
After being pulled from the water, bystanders performed CPR on thirteen-year-old Usely, before she was brought to the hospital. She’s reported to be on the mend, and her survival is all down to brave young Angel.
Angel’s mum Violeta said that, despite his heroics, her boy was visibly shaken afterwards.
“He kept asking how she was, over and over and he was crying," Violeta said. "I just kept telling him that I was so proud of him for what he did."
“Some kids think they’re cool ’cause they’re not around their parents,” he told the TV station. “They’re like, ‘Oh I’m gonna do this and I’m gonna do that.’ But that’s the lesson learned today. You need an adult or a lifeguard to be with you.”
Despite being so young, it seems Angel has a mature head on his shoulders.
“Some kids think they’re cool ’cause they’re not around their parents,” Angel told WFOR-TV. “They’re like, ‘Oh I’m gonna do this and I’m gonna do that.’ But that’s the lesson learned today. You need an adult or a lifeguard to be with you.”
