In 1964, Eady Rothstein, from Ramsey, N.J., was relaxing near the edge of a pool at a club on Lido Beach on New York’s Long Island. She then suddenly slipped into the water.
“I can picture being underwater, screaming,” recalled Rothstein, as NBC News writes.
A lifeguard jumped in and gave the little girl mouth-to-mouth resuscitation for several minutes. He continued CPR until she regained consciousness, saving her life.
“I’ve always said I wanted to thank him, and I should do it,” said Rothstein.
Rothstein and Larry Brickman had only met in person that summer day. Recently, though, Rothstein read an article describing their encounter in a family scrapbook while moving to her new home in Ramsey.
Without any hesitation, she decided to track him down, and she used a Google search to find his whereabouts.
“I got his phone number. I got his answering machine, and I left a message,” said Rothstein.
Brickman returned her call.
“My final words to her when I hung up that day, after I called her back, were, ‘You know, I guess we just got very lucky, you and I both,'” said Brickman, as this report found.
Rothstein’s story may sound familiar to news readers who heard about this young woman in 2011 who reunited with the hero who saved her life 18 years ago. Melissa Eknaian, a nursing major at Bloomsburg University, nearly lost her life at 13 months old when she choked on french fry at a restaurant, but a quick-thinking William Solomon, of the Old Lycoming Township police department, managed to dislodge the food from her throat and perform life-saving CPR.
