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Plucky Scouts rescue toddler floating in river

Brave boys, 11 and 9, save 18-month-old who was face-down in the water.
/ Source: The Associated Press

OMAHA, Neb. — A troop of Boy Scouts on a camping trip saved an 18-month-old girl who had fallen in a river upstream from them and was floating face down, officials said.

The boys were swimming in the Platte River at Two Rivers State Recreation Area, about 20 miles west of Ohama, on Saturday when 11-year-old Christian Nanson spotted something floating in the water. It turned out to be a young girl.

Nanson and John Fitzgerald, 9, both member of an Omaha Scout troop, reached the girl and brought her to shore while others called for help on a cell phone, assistant scoutmaster Matt Fitzgerald told the Omaha World-Herald.

Douglas County Sheriff’s Deputy David Brock said the little girl, Stephanie Pacheco, was treated for hypothermia and released from a hospital Monday.

The child had slipped away from her mother upstream, said Duane Arp, a conservation officer with the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission.