I wonder how much news in the Philippines this is making compared to other incidents?

A U.S. Navy corpsman is being lauded as a hero for saving a toddler who nearly drowned in a pool at the Bituon Beach Resort in the Philippines, according to a military news release Saturday.

Petty Officer 3rd Class Christopher Thomas, a corpsman with Naval Construction Battalion Forty, is in the Philippines for Balikatan 2009, an annual exercise.

According to the release, Thomas helped clear the water from 19-month-old Maria Fe Issabelle Fernandez’s lungs after she wandered away from her family and fell into a swimming pool on April 6.

“I held her in my arm and gave her back thrusts to force the water out of her,” Thomas is quoted as saying in the release.

“We are so thankful to him for what he did,” Maria’s grandfather, Manuel Inventor, said. “I realized soon after, had it not been for the U.S. forces being here in the first place, my granddaughter would not still be here.”

NMCB-40 is in the Masbate province to construct a well as part of Balikatan.  [Stars & Stripes]