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A woman who suffered cardiac arrest at a public swimming pool has expressed her “extreme thanks” to the young children, a quick-thinking mother and others who helped rescue her.��

The Christchurch woman in her 60s named Wendy, has spoken of the incident��that left her dead for several minutes��as the public worked to revive her.��

Two children - believed to be aged under 12 - tried to lift her head out of the water before a mother watching a child’s swimming lesson dove into the water and dragged her to safety.��

Emergency services were called to the afternoon water incident at QEII Recreation and Sport Centre in the eastern Christchurch suburb of New Brighton on August 28.��

When Wendy was brought to the poolside after her rescue, she was “blue, lifeless” and it was quickly determined that CPR should be performed.��

It took six minutes for members of the public to revive her, she was taken to hospital and is expected to make a full recovery.��

Two weeks on, Wendy still cannot remember anything about the incident - but she told the��Herald��she’d been under the water for close to 90 seconds.��

“I’m extremely thankful to all who helped bring me back to life,” she said.��

“It wasn’t my time to go.”��

Wendy said three of her ribs were broken whilst CPR was being performed.��

Penny Snelling had been initially watching her son’s swimming lesson at the centre’s lap pools when she heard another child call out: “Mum, what’s wrong with that lady?”��

The Christchurch mother ended up jumping into the waters.��

“I looked at the lifeguard and he still hadn’t woken up to the fact,” she told the Herald.��

Penny Snelling said the rescue was a case of taking action and dealing with the consequences after.��

“So I said ‘screw this’ and took my shoes off - heaven knows why I took my shoes off - I didn’t even say anything to my poor child, I just leapt straight into the pool and dove across my kid’s swimming lessons.”��

By the time Snelling reached Wendy, she realised she was “one hundred per cent” under the water.��

Reaching over the lane rope, grabbing Wendy under the shoulders and hoisting her on to her own, the mother dragged her across the lanes to the side of the pool.��

By this point, the lifeguard was aware of the incident and came to assist with getting Wendy out of the water.��

“We got her on to the side and she was blue, totally dead,” said Snelling.��

“I’ve never seen anything as close to lifeless. She was limp as anything and totally gone.”��

Given her state, Snelling determined CPR would need to be started straight away. So she got to work with compressions, something she’d been trained to do in a life-saving course back in high school.��

Snelling was first, then an off-duty nurse took over. Then another member of the public, then another, all taking turns to compress Wendy’s heart and trying to bring back life.��

A defibrillator was sourced and used. After six minutes Wendy’s pulse was restored.��

Wendy was rushed to the hospital and immediately placed on life support.��

She survived the ordeal and has since been in contact with her rescuers to keep them updated on her recovery.��