Young Girls Hailed as Heroes After Saving Two From Drowning

June 14, 2012— -- Two young girls not even in their teens are being hailed as heroes after they came to save swimmers from drowning in Utah and Tennesee this week.

In American Fork, Utah, a 4-year-old girl was swimming underwater in a public pool Tuesday when Tiana Evans, just one year her senior, noticed something was wrong. Evans initially suspected the girl was searching for a ball at the bottom of the pool, but it soon became clear that she was grasping for air.

"She grabbed my thumb and then I pulled her up," Evans said, according to ABC's Salt Lake City affiliate ABC4. The girl's mother then rushed over to help her daughter out of the pool and told Emily Evans, Tiana's mother, to tell Tiana that she was a hero.

To which Tiana responded: "No, mommy, I'm a lifeguard."

Emily Evans said her daughter aspires to be a lifeguard when she grows up.

A day later, at an apartment complex in Antioch, Tenn., it was the younger girl who saved the life of the elder.

"Look! I can swim in the nine feet!" were the last words 11-year-old Jermaysha Scales heard from Bineta Majhi, 12, before Majhi disappeared underwater in the deep end of the complex's pool.

After someone spotted Majhi lying motionless on the pool floor, Scales dove toward her, hoisted her on her shoulder, and carried her up to the surface.

"I didn't think or nothing. All I was thinking of was getting the little girl out of the water," Scales told ABC's Nashville affiliate WKRN. "She was a little heavy, but I got her up on the concrete."

Adults nearby helped pull Majhi out of the water and performed CPR. Majhi was then taken to Vanderbilt Children's Hospital, where she was listed in critical condition.

A self-taught swimmer, Scales said she had never met Majhi, but would like to be acquainted with the girl whose life she saved.