At just 15 years old, Ivy Nguyen was honored as a hero after saving a teenage boy from drowning in a pool.
“I’m very happy. I didn’t expect this venue of people to be here and I’m so grateful for everything,” Nguyen said.
The Orange County Girl Scout was presented with a Medal of Honor for her quick thinking and life-saving skills last June.
“Brandon wanted to see if he could like, hold his breath across and go across the pool. And then I kind of looked underwater. And I was like he’s not okay, he looks like unconscious. I lifted up his arm and the first thing I saw was that his lips were purple,” Nguyen said.
Nguyen said she relied on her Girl Scout first aid training and started performing CPR until the ambulance arrived.
“It was very relieving when he gasped actually. And we actually laid him back on his side because I didn’t want like any of that pool of water to get into his lungs,” Nguyen said.
“I think it’s something everyone should learn eventually. Even if they do learn it, it’s another thing to do it in real life. You know, there’s not a lot of people out there that wouldn’t have the courage to do what she did for me,” said drowning victim Brandon Vu.