Neighbours save four-year-old boy with autism from drowning in heart-stopping video

‘I never thought he’d be able to get into the pool’, says mother

Heart-stopping video captured the moment a four-year-old boy with autism was saved from drowning in his pool by hero neighbours.

The dramatic rescue unfolded on 18 May when Xavier Rigney was seen by his 12-year-old neighbour Maddox Westerhouse running into the swimming pool at his family’s home in Lawrence, Kansas.

Maddox told police he became alarmed at seeing Xavier appearing to drown and ran to tell his father Tom Westerhouse.

The Lawrence police department said on Thursday that Xavier was pulled from the water by Mr Westerhouse, who was thanked by the boy’s mother.

“He’s my best friend, so I don’t know what I would do without him,” the toddler’s mother, Alexis, said during the event. “I never thought he’d be able to get into the pool”.

Police said in a Facebook post that Mr Westerhouse “jumped the locked fence, pulled the unresponsive toddler from the pool, and administered life-saving aid”.

“This is an amazing outcome,” police added.” Watch the surveillance video and see for yourself. Too often, this is not the way these calls end.”

Lawrence-Douglas County Fire Medical Battalion Chief Rob Fleeup said on Thursday that “Xavier was under the water for 3 minutes and 22 seconds” before CPR was performed by Mr Westerhouse.

Xavier was alert when paramedics arrived, and was expected to recover.