Eldersburg, Md. (Map, News) - Jacob Lorentson doesn’t consider himself a hero — just a boy who did what any big brother would do to rescue his baby sister from drowning in the family’s back yard pool.

“I acted on instinct. I didn’t even think about it,” Jacob, 14, told reporters gathered Friday on a deck behind the family’s Eldersburg home, only feet from where his 21-month-old sister, Sarah, nearly died.

But paramedics and his parents, Stacy and Chris, hailed the teen as a role model for his quick thinking in the face of a near tragedy.

Stacy Lorentson was gardening last Friday when Jacob asked where Sarah, who had been playing on the deck with her three brothers, was.

Mother and son ran to the pool and found the toddler had been floating face up for as long as five minutes after walking through an unlocked deck door.

“Jacob jumped right into the pool and didn’t even hesitate,” said Stacy Lorentson, a stay-at-home mom who homeschools her children.

Recalling instructions from a high school health class, she started CPR on her baby, who had turned blue.

Jacob called 911 and recited their address and phone number and listened to the dispatcher’s instructions to tell his mom to put Sarah on her side so she wouldn’t choke, according to a recording of the call.

The girl spit up water and started crying.

Before mother and daughter boarded the helicopter for Johns Hopkins pediatric emergency room, Jacob thought to pack his mom a change of dry clothes.

“Just the presence of mind, I think that’s what impressed me the most,” said Bill Rehkopf, public information officer for Sykesville-Freedom District Fire Department. “Even adults wouldn’t think of that.”

Other incidents
» Darren Powell, a 5-year-old Howard County youth, nearly drowned Tuesday at Columbia’s Bryant Woods pool. Powell remained in critical condition Friday at Children’s National Medical Center in D.C.

» Lij-Paul Headley, a 19-year-old Morgan State University student, drowned June 17 in Ocean City.

kvolkmann@baltimoreexaminer.com