911 dispatcher, grandma credited with saving drowning toddler's life

FLAGLER COUNTY, Fla. — A 911 operator is being hailed as a hero after helping a Palm Coast woman save her 2-year-old granddaughter from drowning.

The grandmother, Alicia Fennell, said when she realized her granddaughter wasn't breathing she couldn't remember what to do.

Fennell said she was so frantic she couldn't remember how to do CPR, so a 911 dispatcher walked her through the procedure.

"She was dead. My grandbaby was dead," said Fennell.

Fennell said her granddaughter had been alone for only a few seconds when she came back and saw the girl had fallen into the pool.

"Her eyes were closed, her tongue was hanging out. She was swollen. She was bloated. She was not responding at all," said Fennell.

Fennell frantically called 911, and dispatcher Genice Caccavale told her how to perform CPR.

"Check on her neck and see if she has a pulse, see if she's breathing. Is she responding?" asked the dispatcher.

"Yes," said Fennell. "She's trying to."

Fennell said the dispatcher saved her granddaughter's life.

"I couldn't have done it no other way. There's no way that I could have made it without her, because she was very calm, she was very patient," said Fennell.

Fennell's granddaughter is out of the hospital and doing well.

Channel 9 was there Tuesday when Fennell met the dispatcher for the very first time.

"It's overwhelming, I think," said Caccavale. "It's amazing. It's overwhelming because we usually don't know what happens at the end of a call."

Fennell and the dispatcher both got awards for saving the little girl's life.

WFTV