Burnet teens save 5-year-old’s life in store parking lot

CONNIE SWINNEY • PICAYUNE STAFF

BURNET — When 14-year-old Brailey Hall and 16-year-old Hannah Smith and Vanessa Escamilla walked into the hospital room, the first thing they saw was a sleeping child and her grateful mother.

“We saw the mom, and tears just came to all of our eyes,” Smith said. ” She just burst out into tears and said, ‘Y’all are my three angels.'”

The trio of Burnet Consolidated Independent School District students visited 5-year-old Jordan, her siblings and her mother, Roshanda Johnson, on the evening of Sept. 7, the day after the teens revived and comforted the child in a parking lot at a convenience store in Burnet.

Smith said, “Going from seeing her there (in the parking lot) and seeing her in the hospital, it was crying not of sadness but crying because we were so happy just to see the mom, knowing that her little girl was alive.”

On Sept. 6, the day of the incident, Escamilla, Hall and Smith were on their way to an outdoor concert at a park in town when they stopped for fuel at the Valero at the intersection of U.S. 281 and Texas 29 in the heart of the city.

The Johnson family, who is from Victoria, was passing through Burnet when they stopped at the store as well.

Hall described what she saw after she paid inside the store and then discovered a woman holding a lifeless girl in her arms in the parking lot.

“I walked out and all I see is Hannah and Vanessa running over there. All I hear is, ‘Help me! Help me! My baby is dead. Help me,'” Hall said. “I go over there and run around the car. She said, ‘Please help me. Don’t let my baby die.'”

The girls said they took the child from the woman and placed her on the ground by the vehicle.

“I said, ‘We’ll help you,’ and the first thing I’m thinking is we need to give her mouth-to-mouth and CPR,” said Hall, who added she mimicked the procedure she recalled seeing on TV shows, including an episode of the soap opera, “Days of Our Lives.”

Smith said she witnessed her friend perform chest compressions and breath into the little girl’s mouth.

“Her eyes started to flutter, so we rolled her over on her side to open up her air valves, and then she did two more, seven total, and then her eyes finally opened,” Smith said.

“First, you see this little girl that’s not breathing,” she added “There’s no pulse and she’s blue and purple, and then you’re holding an alive little girl.”

EMS arrived after several minutes and transported the girl to Dell Children’s Hospital in Austin.

Roshanda Johnson said physicians performed tests and diagnosed little Jordan with a heart murmur. She credited the teens and faith with saving Jordan’s life.

“It’s a beautiful thing to realize that it was only a teenager. She’s just 14,” she said. “It just goes to show you how the Lord is using kids also to save lives. I really appreciate it from the bottom of my heart.”

Fire, EMS and city officials are expected to honor the teens for their courage in coming to the aid of visitors.

“If you want to have faith in humanity and faith in the younger generation — I know sometimes it gets a little challenging with what we’ve seen in our community as of late — but to me, it really gave me a lot of hope in the younger generation that these kids are good kids,” Burnet Mayor Gary Wideman said. “They’re going to do the things that are necessary, and when they have the opportunity to help somebody, to put yourself out there like that, that’s a scary thing to do when you don’t exactly know how to do it. The value they placed on that little girl’s life was tremendous.”

Escamilla said she swells with pride when she thinks about her friend’s actions.

“She (Brailey) is really courageous,” she said. “Words can’t even describe how brave she was that night. I’m very proud of her.

Hall said, “Jordan is just beautiful and amazing. We got to talk to her (that) Sunday, and she’s just a sweetheart,” Hall said. “It’s really not about me. It’s about the little girl and how she gets to live on.”

connie@thepicayune.com