An experience I'll never forget

We were relaxing by the pool when I heard a woman begin to panic. "Whose kid is this?! He was at the bottom of the pool! Oh my God. Whose kid is this?!" I looked up from my chair to see her lifting a lifeless little body from the water. I grabbed my phone and called 911 while Keane ran to help another man do CPR on the small child. His lips were blue and dark circles encompassed his eyes. Without any idea of how long he was under water, my heart dropped and I thought for sure he was already gone. I tried to speak calmly to the dispatch operator but found it almost impossible to control my panicked voice. "He's not breathing! He's completely blue! Is someone coming? Oh God, hurry!" Men were cussing, women were screaming and kids were crying at the thought of this little boy dying, right there in front of us.

It took nearly 30 seconds before anyone even claimed the child. A man finally rushed to his side saying he was his uncle. He begged and pleaded for the boy to wake up while pacing around his body. Just then a woman came running over saying she was a nurse. She took over the chest compressions and rescue breaths while we all tried to will the life back into his body. 

After about a minute and a half, sirens approached in the distance and his tiny chest finally began to rise and fall. Water gurgled out of his mouth and color flooded back to his face. He sat, slumped over onto the woman until he regained full consciousness and then let out a wail. We all breathed a collective sigh of relief as I informed dispatch that he was back. 

This happened on sunday and I have yet to stop thinking about it. A trauma like that is hard to get out of your mind. I think about the woman who tripped over his 6 year old body as she was walking across the pool. I think about how small his little head was as I tilted it back to open his airway. I think about his uncle who will probably never forgive himself for not supervising more closely. And I think about that lifesaving nurse who happened to be in the right place at the right time. 

The boy was taken to the hospital for tests that day. There is a possibility he may have sustained brain damage since no one knows how long he was actually at the bottom of the pool before being found. 

But he is alive. 

Life is short, people, and we never know what might happen. Give your loved ones an extra tight squeeze today. xo