Police officer on vacation, hotel employee, rush to help child who nearly drowned

A New Jersey police officer may have been on vacation, but he certainly didn’t take a break from saving lives.

Sgt. Sean O’Hare was sitting by the pool at the Sheraton Sand Key on Clearwater Beach when a 2-year-old boy was pulled, lifeless, from the water Sunday, according to a Facebook post from the Clearwater Police Department.

O’Hare, an officer for 20 years, was on vacation when he heard the screams, saw a boy being pulled from the deep end of the pool and ran over, according to the post.

Hotel employee Vince Tropea and others were able to pull the boy from the pool and laid him on the ground, but O’Hare noticed the boy was blue and not breathing, according to police.

Those gathered worked on the boy for about three minutes until his eyes opened and he began to gasp and cry. O’Hare then helped Clearwater Fire & Rescue paramedics get the boy to a stretcher, and he was taken to All Children’s Hospital in St. Petersburg, according to the post.

O’Hare told officials even when he’s on vacation, he’s always on duty.

“That's the reason you take the job,” he said to police. “To help people.”

The boy was discharged form the hospital Monday morning and is expected to be fine, according to a Clearwater police Facebook post, thanking Tropea for his efforts in saving the boy’s life.

The post went on to say Tropea had just taken a CPR refresher course a couple of months ago and was prepared. O’Hare told police he has performed CPR several times throughout his career as well.

“Thank you to Vince and the folks from Sheraton Sand Key for their quick work in this case that could have ended in a tragedy,” Clearwater police posted.

This story was originally published August 14, 2017 at 9:17 PM with the headline "Police officer on vacation, hotel employee, rush to help child who nearly drowned."