‘I Heard Splashing’: 10-Year-Old Recounts How He Helped Rescue His Mother

A simple summer day took a scary turn. A 10-year-old boy jumped into action without any hesitation. 

Monday, August 29th 2022, 5:18 pm



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A simple summer day took a scary turn. A 10-year-old boy jumped into action without any hesitation. 

“I do not swim alone, and Gavin had just gotten out of the pool,” Lori Keeney said. “I unfortunately don’t have any kind of notice or aura to warn me when it’s about to happen.”

Keeney’s son, Gavin, saw his mother in trouble. She suffered a seizure in the pool.  

“Then I heard, like, splashing and kind of drowning,” Gavin said. 

“You can actually see him in footage, jumping in, getting his mom out of the pool and holding her at the ladder until she came out of her medical episode,” Kingston Police Department chief Casey Cox said. “I observed the video, and I knew that he had to have some kind of recognition.”

Kenney said the family’s dogs started barking, which got the attention of her father. He then came to get her out of the pool. 

A ceremony was held in front of all Gavin’s classmates, proclaiming him a hero.

For Lori Keeney, it was a difficult time in the pool.

“It was really heartbreaking to see Gavin just hold me,” Keeney said. “Just hold (sic) me, got me to the ladder. He held on. He just held me above water. It floored me that he knew how to do that. We had talked about water safety but not to that extent.” 

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