Off-Duty Hartland Firefighter Revives 3-Year-Old Boy

The quick and instinctive actions of an off-duty Hartland firefighter helped give a 3-year-old boy a chance at life after a frantic woman pulled the toddler from Spring Mill Pond on Sunday at Island Lake Recreation Area.

The boy had no pulse and wasn't breathing when Matt Whitmore ran to him on the beach at about 7 p.m., he said, as he and his family were preparing to leave after a day at the park. Performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation, Whitmore was able to restart the boy's pulse and get him to breathe and helped treat him until Livingston County EMS and Green Oak Township Fire Department arrived.

"My skills just took over and I went to work," said Whitmore, a nearly 11-year veteran of the Hartland-Deerfield Fire Authority. "It's just another day. I was there. I did what I was trained to do. I don't feel like I was a hero or nothing. I was at the right spot at the right time."

But area police and fire officials have been praising Whitmore, a fourth-generation firefighter who is originally from Keego Harbor.

"It wasn't for him being there I don't believe the child would have had a chance," said Officer Pat Moll of the Green Oak Township police department who was at the scene. "The kid had the best hands, the fastest possible."

The child was airlifted to University of Michigan Hospital with life-threatening injuries, according to a report Tuesday in the Livingston County Daily Press & Argus. An updated condition on the boy wasn't available Tuesday, according to Green Oak Township public safety officials.

Hartland Fire Chief Adam Carroll said the department is proud of Whitmore's actions and plans to honor his deed. He said in his 20 years, this is only the second situation where an off-duty firefighter stepped in with a potential positive outcome. The other was about four to five months ago when the deputy chief helped a man who passed out aboard a plane during a business trip.

"It's a rare event when it happens like that — with a positive outcome like that, we call those career saves," said Carroll, who added the department is hoping for the child's recovery. "I would call what he got dramatic results. … We don't get that in CPR much at all. That's a huge plus."

Carroll also said more residents can be a hero like Whitmore if they learn community CPR. The department trains about 100 people a year during sessions at the main fire station at a minimal cost. If interested, residents can attend a session on a Tuesday or a Thursday.

"Every technique Matt employed there was the same thing you would have employed standard in CPR," he said. "His instincts are to get involved immediately and take charge of it because he knows he can … (But) the more times you take the class, the more practice you get with it. A lot of times that makes a big difference."

Whitmore, a 36-year-old Hartland resident who is married with three children, is a sergeant with the department who leads crews out to calls.

On Sunday, though, he was with immediate and extended family who spent the day swimming, fishing and barbecuing at the park celebrating the Fourth of July holiday. He said his wife and brother helped with crowd control and his 12-year-old son, who wants to be the family's fifth generation as a firefighter, sprinted to the car to get his father's radio and medical bag. He said they wasn't surprised by his actions.

"My family knows it's my job — that's what I do," he said. "My wife just says I was there for a reason."