Nurse Saves Toddler, Revives Old Friendship

Quick action by a south Glendale nurse not only saved the life of a 15-month-old girl, but reunited the child’s mother with a childhood friend--the nurse’s husband.

Elizabeth Amerkhanian, a surgical nurse at Glendale Adventist Medical Center, was home feeding her 4-week-old baby when she heard screams from a neighboring apartment house Saturday afternoon.

She ran with her husband, Pabkin, to the scene, where little Annie Babaian had fallen into the building’s pool.

Varto Babaian, Annie’s mother, said a son found the girl floating face down in the water.

“I just ran over. There was a lot of commotion,” Amerkhanian said.

“She was really cold and blue and wasn’t breathing at all, but she had a faint pulse,” Amerkhanian said.

But after the nurse performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation and gave the girl “10 good breaths,” the infant regained consciousness, she said.

By the time an ambulance arrived to take her to Children’s Hospital, the girl was “nice and pink,” she said.

After the ordeal, Babaian--who had just moved to Glendale from Bakersfield a week ago--recognized Amerkhanian’s husband, Pabkin, as one of her friends from her youth in Baghdad, Iraq.

The two childhood friends lost track of each other when Babaian and her family left the country about 20 years ago, she said, although she knew he lived somewhere in Southern California.

Varto Babaian said she intends to learn CPR.

Annie recovered and was returned to her family.