Beach Wedding Photographer Abandons Camera to Save Drowning Child

31-year-old Chantelle Botha, a wedding photographer abandoned her cameras during a beach wedding and ran to the seashore to give artificial respiration to a 5-year-old drowning child just as the bride was about to say ‘I do’.

Botha, who has a young son herself, spent 15 minutes performing CPR on the little boy until she found a faint pulse. Lifeguards took over from there and she returned to her cameras, Daily Mail reports.

It was the first time the mother of one had ever saved a life and she says it gave her ‘an amazing feeling’.

The resuscitated boy had been on an outing with his church to Port Shepstone, 75 miles south of Durban, before the nasty incident which saw him checking into a hospital after being rescued. Botha said she was photographing the beach wedding ceremony with a colleague when she had a sudden urge to look behind her towards the Indian Ocean.

She says,

“I saw two kids dragging the body of a smaller child out of the sea. I just dumped my camera and whispered to my colleague that I would be back soon, and just ran. When I reached the boy he didn’t have a pulse. I checked his pupils and he was also foaming at the mouth.
When I reached the boy he didn’t have a pulse. I checked his pupils and he was also foaming at the mouth. I cleared his airways and began compression. It took me about 15 minutes before I could detect a faint pulse. The crowd who were with him were distraught, but stood back and gave me plenty of room to work. I have a five year old boy of my own so I was just thinking of him. It kept going through my mind that this boy could have been my child, and he was just too little to die.
My hand was so big on his little chest, I was worried about breaking a rib as I worked on him. When I finally could feel a pulse, it was faint, but it was such an amazing feeling, I was overwhelmed with relief.’

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Botha’s husband, Craig, is a paramedic and she had watched him carry out life saving procedures, but had never done one herself.

‘I had watched my husband perform CPR a few times, but I had never done it before. I just don’t know what made me stop taking pictures and turn around – I was busy working and it was a pretty crucial stage of the ceremony, where they were about to say the ‘I dos’. I carried on with my job, once the boy was in safe hands with the lifeguard. I don’t think the happy couple had a clue what had gone on during the ceremony – I worked at the reception afterwards as if nothing had happened.’

The South African newlyweds were amazed to see a little boy’s life saved while they exchanged wedding vows by the waters.