13-Year-Old Spring Breaker Saves Drowning Toddler

A teen from New Mexico was on vacation in Orlando with her family, but a relaxing time turned into a rescue when she saved a young girl's life.

Kaydence Henslee, 13-years-old, was enjoying spring break at the hotel pool when she noticed a toddler floating face down in the deep end of the pool.

"I was scared and nervous and afraid, but my instincts kicked in," Kaydence told KRQE. “I just saw her kind of floating. She wasn’t technically on the bottom when I was there. When I pulled her out, her lip was purple.”

3-year-old Haven Williams was later identified as the toddler, visiting from Missouri. Her mom said she had stepped away from the pool for just a second when the horrifying moment happened.

“I just remember seeing another woman run across and yell into the bar area for someone to call 911 because a baby had just drowned,” Haven's mom, Ashley, told KRQE. “I was like, ‘Oh my gosh.’ I didn’t think it was my baby.”

Ashley said things clicked when she recognized the swimsuit. “I just pushed through the crowd,” she recalled. “I felt that feeling of losing my child.”

An unnamed bystander performed CPR on Haven until an ambulance arrived. It wasn't until 5am the next morning that she was fully awake and alert.

“Even the doctors are saying that whoever got her out of the water did it at a perfect time because if she would have been under the water a little longer, it would have been a different outcome,” Ashley said.

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Kaydence's dad said the two families swapped contact information to stay in touch, and Kaydence even sent Haven a friendship necklace ahead of her fourth birthday.

Ashley works at a children's hospital and sees tragedies all the time, but never thought this could happen to her or Haven.

Kaydence said she's getting CPR certified this week.

Read more at KRQE