A 20-year-old Martin County woman is being honored after she used CPR to help save a 3-year-old girl she found motionless at the bottom of a swimming pool.
Nearly two months after the August rescue, Martin County Fire Rescue recognized Madison Isler with the department’s Heroic Heart Award.
WATCH: Martin County woman honored for saving 3-year-old
The rescue happened Aug. 23 as Isler walked past the pool at her apartment complex. She told WPTV something in the water caught her attention.
“It kind of looked like a smudge in your sunglasses,” Isler said. “And then, so I took my glasses off and I looked, and then I realized that it was a little girl.”
That little girl was 3-year-old Luna.
‘I jumped in and grabbed her’
Isler said Luna was motionless at the bottom of the swimming pool when she spotted her.
“I jumped in and grabbed her and pulled her out, and she was blue,” Isler said.
Isler called for her boyfriend to contact 911 and began CPR, using skills she said she learned at a young age from her parents, who both work in fire rescue.
“You just don’t really think; you just kind of do, especially in a situation when it’s a little baby,” Isler said. “I pulled a lifeless baby out of a pool.”
A family friend who is a pediatric intensive care unit nurse heard the commotion and joined the rescue effort, according to the account shared by Martin County Fire Rescue.
“Together, they continued their life-saving efforts till finally Luna responded,” Martin County Fire Rescue Chief Chad Cianciulli said.
Fire rescue officials said Luna was alert and oriented by the time paramedics transported her to the hospital.
Luna’s mother says Isler was there ‘at the right time’
Luna’s mother, Christine Hernandez, said she is grateful Isler happened to be nearby when her daughter needed help.
“It’s God’s work that He put her when we needed her, like at the right place at the right time,” Hernandez said.
Nearly two months after that frightening day, Isler and Luna reunited at Martin County Fire Rescue headquarters.
This time, they were together to celebrate the outcome of the rescue.
Martin County Fire Rescue honors Isler
Martin County Fire Rescue presented Isler with its Heroic Heart Award in recognition of her actions.
“Today, on behalf of Martin County Fire Rescue and our entire community, we honor Madison for her courage to act with Martin County Fire Rescue’s Heroic Heart Award,” Cianciulli said during the recognition.
According to the department, Isler is the first person to receive its Heroic Heart Award.
For Isler, however, the recognition is secondary to seeing Luna alive and able to grow up.
“What means the most to me is that Luna’s here with us today and that she gets to grow up and experience life,” Isler said.
Isler affectionately calls Luna her “unicorn baby.”
For Hernandez, the outcome comes with overwhelming gratitude.
“I’m just very, very thankful, very thankful for Maddie and her family,” Hernandez said.
For Isler, a skill learned years before an emergency ever happened became critical in the moment Luna needed help, turning CPR training into an action Martin County Fire Rescue says helped save a child’s life.
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