Wednesday, April 3, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.
He's being hailed as a hero by the Clark County Fire Department after saving a 6-year-old boy, but Michael Wong isn't really comfortable with the special attention.
He shied away from a television camera when a local news team approached to interview him about reviving Keith Bowen after Monday's near-drowning in a backyard pool.
And when the instructor who recently certified him in cardiopulmonary resuscitation called to commend Wong for his courage after seeing the story on the news, Wong instead thanked the woman for offering the CPR class.
It's modesty, yes. But there's more to it -- you could see it in the 24-year-old's face when he heard that Bowen was upgraded late Tuesday from critical to good condition.
"Really? Good!" he said, a sparkle in his eyes. "That's good news."
His wife, Jennifer, is a nurse at Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center where Bowen remains in the pediatric intensive care unit. Wong made a special request that she check on the boy's condition throughout the day.
Wong had just finished a round of golf shortly after noon Monday and was walking to his car in the Las Vegas Hilton Country Club lot when he heard a scream for help.
His bag of clubs on his back, Wong headed toward the voice. A face appeared over a wall bordering the golf course, asking if he knew CPR.
Within seconds, Wong dropped his clubs, leaped over the wall into the back yard of the home on Ayita Circle, off Desert Inn Road, and was at the child's side on the living room floor.
Someone was attempting CPR on the boy's lifeless body. "But he wasn't doing it right," Wong said. "I started going through my head what to do and then started CPR."
Wong is a trained emergency medical technician and experienced lifeguard. Just three weeks ago, he was recertified in CPR by Sherry Flick at Desert Iguana, a local swim fitness and water safety company.
Following basic rescue technique, Wong checked for a response and found the child without a pulse and not breathing. He was told the child had been on the pool's floor about two minutes.
The man, whom Wong heard was also a passer-by that hopped the backyard wall to help, again started in with chest compressions in tandem with Wong's timed rescue breaths.
What was really a few minutes seemed an eternity, Wong said, before Metro Police responded to the 911 call.
"I thought they were going to take over," Wong said. Instead, they directed Wong to take full control of the patient, relieving the other man of his duties.
And when Clark County paramedics arrived, he again assumed he'd be relieved. "Keep going," they told him as they quickly prepared a face mask to administer air and a tube to place in the child's throat to aid his breathing.
He walked out to the backyard pool when the Mercy ambulance crew left the driveway en route to the hospital with a child whose pulse and breath had been restored.
Bowen's father, though still hysterical, thanked Wong.
The family had arrived at their friends' Ayita Circle home about half an hour before the near drowning after flying in from New York.
"The hours after a near drowning can be very critical for a patient," said Bob Leinbach, fire department spokesman. "But whatever the outcome, the fact that (Wong) made the effort to save this boy's life is what's most important. He's a hero."
Few people are willing to take responsibility for another person's life, Flick said.
"I know from experience that many young people, no matter how well they are trained, will step aside and allow someone else to step in and take over," Flick said.
Several thousand people have received water safety instruction through Desert Iguana since Flick and her sister opened the business in Las Vegas five years ago. The company is originally from San Diego.
"Here he was golfing, he hears someone yelling for help and he responds," she said. "Mike wasn't expecting to rescue someone that day. It took a special person to react the way he did. You can teach and teach and teach people, but you aren't there to encourage them later when something happens."
Wong told Flick that he felt uncomfortable after performing CPR, "that maybe he hadn't done enough," she said.
"You can never prepare these kids for what they'll feel after they make a real rescue," Flick said. "It's a human, not a mannequin. People do die -- it happens -- but only God decides. Regardless of what happens, what matters is that he responded. Had he not, the outcome would have been worse."
Wong, who grew up in Hawaii, said the experience only furthered in his mind how vital it is that people learn CPR.
"Especially if you have children and you're around a pool," he said. "It doesn't take more than a split second for a child that's floating to go under the water."
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