A little boy was airlifted from Central Park shortly after noon Wednesday by paramedics who responded to reports of the boy nearly drowning.
The toddler appeared to be about two years old, according to a woman who witnessed the helicopter rescue by paramedics with the Los Angeles County Fire Department.
Valeria Vezzali, who was at Central Park when the chopper touched down next to her parked car, said the little boy appeared uninjured, awake and was sitting up in the stretcher when he was transferred from an ambulance to a waiting helicopter.
“I was walking my dog at Central Park when I saw the helicopter land next to the garden area,” she said.
Paramedics from Fire Station #108 were dispatched at 11:57 a.m. to a residence on the 28000 block of Deer Springs Drive in Saugus, Fire Department Inspector Joey Marron told The Signal.
“This did come in as a drowning,” Marron said, noting a helicopter was also dispatched to the area.
“They couldn’t land at the initial LZ (landing zone) so they went to Central Park,” he said, referring to the helicopter crew.
The boy was put on a stretcher then placed in an ambulance and was on his way – initially – to Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital.
While driving to Henry Mayo, the ambulance crew coordinated efforts with the helicopter crew to meet at Central Park and have the boy taken to Northridge Hospital Medical Center, Marron said.
The chopper lifted off he ground at Central Park shortly before 12:30 p.m., he said.
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