A 5-year-old Ferriday boy was flown to Jackson after nearly drowning in a swimming pool Wednesday afternoon.

Chase Charpentier wandered into the deep end of the pool at the Moose Lodge in Natchez, Police Chief Mike Mullins said, reading a report Wednesday.

“Other young children saw (him) wander into the deep end, realized the child was in trouble and picked him up” out of the water, Mullins said.

A friend of the family brought Chase and his friends to the pool Wednesday, Chase’s mother, Robin Charpentier, said.

Chase got into the 5-foot-deep end of the pool while she was checking in, said Allen Burchfield, governor of the Moose Lodge.

“His friend thought he was playing,” Burchfield said.

Zach Rogel was one of the two lifeguards present.

“Jamie Stewart (the other lifeguard) yelled my name, and as soon as she did, I looked, and another boy was pulling him up on the side of the pool,” Rogel said. “He had no pulse, no signs of life, so I just started CPR for about five minutes until the paramedics got there. By that time, he had a pulse.”

Metro Ambulance Service and the Natchez Fire Department responded.

Chase was taken by ambulance to Natchez Community Hospital.

From there, the boy was airlifted to the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson while on a ventilator, Mullins said.

Chase was admitted to the emergency room early Wednesday evening and was in stable condition in the hospital’s intensive care unit Wednesday night.

“He looks pretty good,” Charpentier said. “Right now, they still have him heavily sedated and paralyzed at least until morning. He woke up and tried to fight the ventilator.”

Doctors found fluid in one lung and think it will clear, she said. They also don’t think there was any neurological damage, she said.

Charpentier, a member of the Ferriday Town Council, said she was taking care of her stepfather, who had undergone back surgery, at the time of the accident.

She had just one request for family and friends.

“Please say prayers,” she said.