A frantic woman jumped into an Ewa Beach condominium pool last week and pulled up her limp 2-year-old son from the bottom.

"He was blue," said a resident at Palm Villas 1 who watched helplessly.

When the mom asked whether anyone knew CPR, no one responded, she said.

The mother then did her best to revive the child.

"Everyone was in shock," said the bystander, who declined to be identified. "Lots of kids were in the area. People were praying. The mom was praying. Another woman was praying alongside her. I felt so helpless."

Within a few minutes "the boy started coughing up water," recalled the resident.

The mother’s quick action Wednesday afternoon saved her child’s life, but the incident underscored the importance of knowing CPR and of keeping an eye on kids.

The boy was one of four children who nearly drowned in pools in Ewa Beach alone in the past month.

Leahi Swim School owner Lori Komer and her son Ben, a co-owner and lifeguard, emphasize that no child is water safe, even if he or she can swim.

"Parents assume someone’s watching the kids or assume the kid is not going to get into trouble," Lori Komer said. "A 2-year-old is an accident waiting to happen."

A mainland swim school came up with the idea of parents sharing "water watcher" duties and wearing an ID tag to that effect, Ben Komer said.

If there’s no lifeguard during a party at a swimming pool, someone can act as the water watcher.

"You’ve got to watch the pool and not get distracted," he said.

If the watcher must leave or gets a phone call, that person must pass the tag to someone else.

In the Palm Villas incident, the 2-year-old boy’s mom told police she was getting ready to leave and took off his "floatie."

When she took a final look at the pool before leaving, she spotted him at the bottom and dived in, the Palm Villas resident said.

The mom estimated he was under for three minutes.

Palm Villas 1 resident manager Phillip Huth said the woman, her children and other relatives members were attending a birthday party.

A similar incident involving a 2-year-old girl happened a week and a half earlier at the same pool, he said.

On July 10 a 5-year-old boy was swimming in the pool at the Coronado, another Ewa Beach condominium, when another child noticed him at the bottom. Other people at the pool brought him up and administered CPR, according to city Emergency Medical Services.

He survived.

On June 27, swimmers pulled a 9-year-old boy from the bottom of an Ewa By Gentry pool. They performed CPR and the child responded, EMS said.

Ben Komer, 34, said he learned to swim by 18 months, performed his first rescue at 9 years old but was not allowed to swim alone in the family pool until age 13.

"Kids get so excited," he said. "It’s so much fun, and they literally get over their head and down they go. In pools, kids don’t realize how deep it is."

Leahi Swim School offers swimming and "water orientation" classes for children as young as 6 months, with parents helping.

"But there’s no such thing as drown-proof," Komer said.