Hotel staff call 9-year-old superhero for saving drowning woman

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A 9-year-old girl is being called a superhero by hotel staff after saving a woman from drowning in a pool in Breman.

Ellie Austin noticed the woman face down in the water of the Hampton Inn pool around 2 p.m. Sunday. She immediately sprang into action to help.

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Austin and another woman were the only two people out at the pool at the time. Staff said if Austin had not reacted the way she did the woman would likely not be alive.

“She was right here and I was right there and I went underwater because we have diving toys and then I came back up, and she was doing the dead man float,” said Ellie Austin.

Austin said at first she thought it was a joke until she swam under the woman.

“I saw her face. Her tongue was bleeding a little and her face was purple,” said Austin. “Then I flipped her over to let her breathe and she was groaning like moaning and then I dragged her.”

Once, Austin got the woman to the stairs she ran to get help.

“I don't think we had time to think, Brandon immediately jumped in the water,” said Jennifer Sapp, who works at the hotel.

Sapp said they got the woman out of the pool and called 911. They believe the woman had a seizure.

“She blinked a few times, then she went back to sleep, but the water was just pouring out of her face, out of her nose, and her ears, everything. She was awake, but not alert by the time paramedics got here,” said Sapp. “If Ellie had not flipped her over before she came in the building, I'm certain she would have drowned because she was gasping air from the seizure, so she would have just been sucking water the entire time.”

Monday, hotel staff presented Austin with flowers, a teddy bear, and a superhero certificate.

Austin said the woman was a lot bigger than her, but she knew she had someone even bigger on her side.

"If I knew God wasn't with me, I wouldn't have done it," said Austin.

Hotel staff said this is one little girl they will never forget.