An 11-year-old Minnesota boy swam to the bottom of a swimming pool at his apartment complex on Sunday to save a 34-year-old man more than twice his size from drowning, police said.
Advaik Nandikotkur, who lives in St. Paul with his mom, Lalitha Mareddy, and his dad, Raghu Nandikotkur, is the only one in his family who knows how to swim, KARE 11 reported.
Mareddy said she saw the unconscious man, who is not being identified, at the bottom of the deep end of the pool with his mouth open and hands stretched out, CNN reported. She called for help but none of the nine men surrounding the pool knew how to swim. Her husband attempted to rescue the man in a floating tube but he wasn’t able to go deep enough into the pool.
“It was pushing me up and I was unable to grab him,” Nandikotkur told CNN.
Mareddy said she asked her 80-pound son to jump in to save the man after remembering one of his exercises in swimming class. Advaik has been taking swimming lessons ever since his family moved from India to Minnesota three years ago.
“I saw him go to the bottom of the pool and collect rings and come up. That just flashed in my mind,” she told CNN.
The boy was worried that the man, who weighed 100 pounds more than he, would be too heavy to carry, but he still managed to pull him to the surface. His dad helped move the man to the edge of the pool.
Advaik’s uncle, Suseel Kumar Nandikotkur, then performed CPR on the man.
“It’s based on my experience watching it in movies and in my school days,” he said.
Minutes later, the man started moving his eyes, then his hands.
Officers who arrived after Advaik’s act of heroism were impressed with his modesty.
“He’s very calm about it. Just matter-of-fact. He did what he needed to do. And I think that’s really cool that he’s just like, ‘Yep, I did it,'” Officer Aaron Machtemes told KARE 11.
Advaik’s parents say they are happy they enrolled their son in swimming classes.
“That was always in our mind, that we should give him some swimming lessons, some survival skills for his own sake,” said Raghu Nandikotkur, who added he plans on taking swimming lessons too.
On Monday, the rescued man thanked Advaik with a $50 Macy’s gift card, although Advaik says he’s just grateful the man is alive.
“If someone didn’t save him, he could’ve died or gotten badly injured,” said. “It would be hard for his family to get through.”