DAYTONA BEACH SHORES, Fla. – A mother accused of child neglect after her son nearly drowned in a hot tub appeared before a judge on Tuesday.
Apryl Connolly, 36, was released on her own recognizance.
Daytona Beach Shores Public Safety Department credits the clerk at Perry's Ocean Edge Resort who saw the drowning 3-year-old boy on surveillance cameras and alerted a maintenance worker. Hotel guest Brittany Fishel also helped with the rescue.
"I'm a nurse, so I have a duty to involve myself in something like that," Fishel said. "I would never walk away from a situation like that without knowing that everything is OK down there."
Fishel said one minute she saw the twin boys from her balcony and the next she only saw one. She immediately yelled for the maintenance worker who was clearing out the hot tub and shutting it off to check for the toddler in the water.
"I could not believe that nobody noticed this child and I didn't know at the time that the resort worker had been watching this on surveillance the whole time," Fishel said.
The maintenance man jumped in, rescued the child and performed CPR. The child's father also helped with CPR before Fishel rushed in to take over.
"Eventually, he did come around as I was doing CPR, started breathing on his own and started crying. Paramedics showed up and took over," she said.
Connolly appeared before a judge who found enough evidence to charge her with child neglect and tampering with evidence after police said she discarded pills while people were trying to save her son.
Fishel said it was a hard experience as she thought of her own children that night and recommends everyone should learn CPR.
"That plays a huge role. I mean, every second counts," she said.
Police said the toddler is expected to recover and will be released from the hospital on Wednesday.