Five months after she was pulled from a Studio City swimming pool without a pulse, 3-year-old Keira reunited with the Los Angeles Fire Department crew that treated her this week. The reunion, held Tuesday with her parents and brother present, marked the formal recognition of the firefighters and paramedics whose four minutes of resuscitation reversed what could have been a fatal outcome.
The emergency unfolded on May 9, when first responders from LAFD Station 86 arrived at the scene within four minutes of receiving a call that a child had been pulled from a pool, according to LAFD representative Jennifer Middleton, as reported by MyNewsLA.com. Keira was lying next to the pool, not breathing and without a pulse, when the crew arrived. Station 86, based at 4305 Vineland Avenue, covers both Studio City and Toluca Lake and runs Engine 86 alongside Rescue Ambulance 86, an Advanced Life Support unit, according to the Los Angeles Fire Department.
Four Minutes That Restarted a Heartbeat
Station 86 members took control of the emergency scene, and paramedics initiated advanced resuscitative care within five minutes of the initial 911 dispatch, the station's report states. Per Middleton, paramedics combined continuous CPR with critical airway management — and after four minutes of treatment, Keira's heart was beating again. Her vital signs continued improving throughout transport to a local emergency room, Middleton said, and the receiving emergency physician expressed strong optimism for her full medical recovery.
That combination of chest compressions and rescue breaths wasn't incidental. Guidance from the American Heart Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics emphasizes that drowning-induced cardiac arrest is driven by severe hypoxia rather than primary cardiac failure, making immediate airway management and rescue breaths essential.
Emergency Response Training
LAFD members are trained to use defibrillators.
Outcomes like Keira's remain the exception rather than the rule in pediatric submersion cases. Drowning is the leading cause of unintentional injury-related death among children aged 1 to 4 both in California and nationally, according to public health data. A 2024 study of California Department of Public Health records published in the Western Journal of Emergency Medicine and hosted by the National Institutes of Health found that for every child in that age group who dies from drowning in California, about 16.8 others suffer nonfatal submersions requiring emergency department care or hospitalization. The same body of research notes that the California Department of Developmental Services maintains an active caseload of roughly 700 to 800 people receiving lifelong care for permanent brain damage and physical disabilities caused by nonfatal drownings — a reminder of how often cerebral hypoxia leaves lasting damage when circulation isn't restored quickly.
What State Law Requires of Backyard Pools
California's pool safety statutes have tightened in recent years. Under the California Swimming Pool Safety Act, updated via Senate Bill 442, any single-family residential pool built or remodeled after January 1, 2018, must include at least two approved safety features — such as isolation fencing, self-closing or self-latching gates, pool alarms, or safety covers — doubling the state's prior one-barrier requirement.
Firefighters Reflect on a Call Involving a Child
At Tuesday's ceremony, the responding crew members were formally recognized for saving Keira's life. An LAFD presenter said a call involving a child weighs heavily on firefighters, and that the crew's accomplishment under pressure represented the department's best. The official who presented the honors added that seeing Keira with her family reminded them why they do the work.
Station 86 has a longstanding partnership with the Toluca Lake Chamber of Commerce around a pancake breakfast fundraiser, according to the Toluca Lake Chamber of Commerce. In May, the crew made its most consequential save — one that, five months later, brought Keira back together with them.
