Drowning at the Silver Beach Hotel Saturday Night

On 1/24/2015 at 6:14pm officers of the St Joseph Department of Public Safety responded to a priority call of a drowning at the Silver Beach Hotel located at 100 Main St.  Prior to arrival, Officers were advised that a 10 year old boy had drowned in the pool.  Officers were further advised that the victim, Melvin Jackson of Benton Harbor, had been removed from the pool and CPR was being administered.

Upon arrival, officers found that the victim, who was visiting the Hotel to celebrate a cousin’s birthday, was breathing and conscious, thanks to the quick actions of another patron of the Hotel, a person unknown to Jackson, Tim Rose, 29, of Battle Creek, MI.

Mr. Rose, who was in the pool area at the time of the incident, observed Melvin on the bottom of the pool in the 8FT deep section.  At first he thought Melvin was trying to see how long he could hold his breath.  Mr. Rose estimated that Melvin was under water for at least one minute before it became apparent to him that Melvin was in trouble when he noticed that Melvin was not moving and bubbles coming from his mouth.

 Mr. Rose then dove into the pool and brought Melvin to the surface, with the help of other bystanders.  Once out of the pool, Mr. Rose observed Melvin was not breathing and was unresponsive.  Mr. Rose began performing CPR on Melvin by administering chest compressions and rescue breathing.  After approximately two minutes of CPR, Melvin responded and started breathing on his own. 

Melvin was transported to Lakeland Medical Center by Medic 1 where he was treated and later released.