BARTOW, Fla. — A Sunday from last May is still burned in Monique Davis’ memory.
“I still get panic attacks from it all the time,” said Davis. “I still have nightmares about it.”
She and her four-year-old son, Bryar, were enjoying a beach day at Sebastian Inlet in Brevard County with their neighbors, friends, and family members from Alturas, which is located just outside Bartow.
After only about an hour of enjoying the beach, it happened.
“And it all happened so fast,” she said.
Davis said she turned her back for just a second to apply sunscreen when Bryar disappeared into the water.
“And then, no sooner I say where’s Bryar — I seen him out of the corner of my eye floating on his back,” the mother remembered. “He was gone. He had no pulse. He was already blue and purple.”
What happened next is why their friend and neighbor, Alesha Truini, who accompanied them on the beach trip, is now called a hero.
She quickly used CPR to bring Bryar back to life.
“I didn’t think it was going to be a big deal. I was just acting on impulse like I think anybody else would,” Truini said. “It wasn’t even a thought. I just immediately acted, and I did CPR for what seemed like forever, and he finally regained his pulse, and he started coughing up that fluid and kind of moaning and crying a little bit.”
Tuesday night, her act of heroism was recognized at a Bartow city commission meeting. She was presented with a “Lifesaving Award" by the American Red Cross of Central Florida and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
“Every time I give a lifesaving award, I’m just amazed,” said Tina Sweeten, executive director of the mid-Florida chapter of the Red Cross. “This one was really special because it was a child. Not that we don’t want to save everybody’s lives, but when it’s a child, it’s even more special.”
Truini is a hero, but she and her neighbors think a divine intervention is responsible for the positive outcome.
“It was definitely God working His magic,” Truini said.
She and Davis think that because a number of factors seem beyond coincidence to them.
For one, Truini got recertified in CPR just a day before her lifesaving act. It was part of her training as a preschool teacher.
“Had I not done it — had I came up with an excuse on why I couldn’t do it that day — I wouldn’t have known what to do,” she said.
She had never been to the beach with Davis and Bryar before until that day.
Finally, there’s what Davis says Bryar told her a week after his near-death experience.
“He has said things and knows things that we’ve never talked about,” Davis said.
And she says he told her he saw more than “the light.”
“He’s always talking about how he saw Jesus,” she said. “He got to see and talk to his Nanny and his Papa in Heaven, and they’re the ones that told him it was time to go home.”
That’s why Truini is more than just their neighbor and hero. She’s also their angel.
“She deserves the world for saving my baby,” Davis said.
To learn more about becoming CPR certified, click here.
Sweeten said you can make a difference even if you're not certified.
You can find additional resources at this link.
Additionally, if you would like to nominate someone you know for the Red Cross’ “Lifesaving Award,” click here.
Truini and Davis hope their incident will inspire others to become CPR-trained and certified.
Davis also hopes it will inspire other parents to seek out swim lessons for their children before allowing them to swim in pools or at the beach.
“Living in Florida and having kids, you’ve got to have swimming lessons,” she said. “Got to. That’s a must.”
