GIRL SAVED FROM DROWNING HELPS LAUNCH CPR EDUCATION DRIVE.

Byline: Steven J. Gorman Daily News Staff Writer

Training and luck helped Peggy Young save a life.

The registered nurse trained in cardiopulmonary resuscitation happened to be close by when 10-year-old Arlette Hardy sank to the bottom of a friend's swimming pool during a birthday party in Granada Hills last month.

She provided CPR to the girl who was pulled from the water limp, blue and not breathing.

``I went into an automatic mode,'' Young said. ``I'm an ICU nurse and I knew what I had to do. So my job was to be there. I'm very thankful it wasn't my daughter. That might have been harder.''

Fully recovered from her ordeal, Arlette was on hand Friday to publicly thank Young at a Los Angeles Fire Department ceremony honoring the Olive View Medical Center pediatric nurse for her quick action.

Arlette Hardy was fortunate.

Last year, 141 people drowned in Los Angeles County, 31 of them under the age of 5. All but three of the 31 drowning cases occurred in backyard swimming pools and spas.

Fire Department officials say many of the drowning victims, as well as victims of cardiac arrest, choking or other life-threatening accidents, can be saved if they're reached in time by someone trained in CPR.

For that reason, the Fire Department has embarked on an ambitious program to teach CPR to 100,000 high school students annually by 2000, with the ultimate goal of boosting the percentage of CPR-trained city residents to at least one in 10, said Lawrence Roberts, a paramedic involved in the program.

``It's a team effort with the community,'' Roberts said. ``Nothing that we do as paramedics will mean anything unless something is done prior to our arrival.''

The ceremony honoring Young was part of a larger public awareness campaign promoting CPR education.

Fire Department and safety experts say Young's experience also illustrates the inherent hazard of swimming pools to young people and the need for constant visual contact between kids in and around pools and adults supervising them.

``The thing that you never realize is that even kids who are healthy and active and old enough to be swimmers can drown in a very short period of time if nobody has their eyes on them,'' Young said.

To increase pool safety, the city of Los Angeles adopted an ordinance in 1992 requiring barrier fences around all newly constructed swimming pools, said Billie Weiss, the director of injury and violence prevention for the county Department of Health Services.

A similar law went into effect for unincorporated areas of Los Angeles County this year, she said.

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Photo: Lifesaver awards were given to the rescuers of Arlet te Hardy, 10, center, including nurse Peggy Young, right, who gave CPR.

Bob Halvorsen/Daily News