water safety~please read!
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water safety~please read!
| Sat, 06-19-2004 - 11:53am |
it's summer and i know we're all enjoying the pool, beach, rivers, etc, but my dd alleria come very close to drowning yesterday and i wanted to give a little reminder of how fast it can happen and little it takes to lose a little one. my mom and i took the kids to the river yesterday to let them splash and cool off. this is a very slow river which is maybe 2 feet deep most of the way across, with a 6 or 8 foot channel on one side. we always stay in the shallow part, which is really most of the river. we've taken them there every summer since they were born, and it seemed like the safest place in the world. we didn't put life jackets or floaties on them because it is so slow and shallow, we never even thought about it. so we were playing with the kids in the shallow part and tristan stubbed his toe, so we were distracted trying to see if he was ok and when we looked up alleria was nowhere to be seen. we called for her for a minute, and then saw her surface in the middle of the channel about 20 feet away. i was holding tristan and couldn't think what to do since i couldn't put him down in the water and the shore was 10 feet away, so i basicly stood there screaming as alleria went under again. my mom did this crazy lifeguard running dive thing fully clothed with her glasses on and swam underwater to where we had seen alleria go down. alleria was gone, we couldn't see her at all, but my mom went under and felt around and somehow pulled her up by her ankle. she wasn't passed out yet but she wasn't breathing because she had so much water in her lungs, so my mom flipped her over and put her knee in her stomach and water just came pouring out of her mouth and nose. she started crying and breathing finally, but it was the worst experience i've ever had. she's only four years old, she has no idea how to swim, and she had done amazingly well to stay up for as long as she did, another minute and she wouldn't be here today. she didn't make a sound when she went under, she tried to scream but her mouth just filled up with water. it was so horrible. she had hit some rocks and was torn up a little, and with the water in her lungs we decided to take her to the er. they checked her out, gave her some oxygen and steroids to prevent pnuemonia, and charcoal to keep her from getting bacteria from the water, and sent us home. she's doing ok now, she has a bad cough that we'll need to watch that it doesn't turn into pnuemonia, but she seems fine. but i'm so scared, i want to put them both in glass display cases and never let them out! i keep going through the what-ifs, what if i hadn't looked for her when i did, what if my mom hadn't been there, what if what if??
silly little thing said she was trying to catch a fish. this is the 4yo who says things like "perhaps" and "stupendous", who can do 2nd grade math and read 1st grade books, who can explain a pundit square better than most adults, but she jumps into an 8 foot deep river because "i saw a fish!" *shakes head* i guess sometimes i forget that she's still only 4 and by definition four is an impulsive age. i've warned her a million times not to go in the deep part, but she's only four, she just didn't think. when she recovered enough to talk, she gave me and my mom a hug and said "you guys are my heroes, you saved me! grandma, you're like Batman!" she is such a precious little thing, and i'm just thanking my lucky stars that she's ok.
but i just wanted to give a little reminder of how fast disasters can happen, how it only takes a second of distraction to lose them. i know i will never ever let that happen again. hug your little ones for me, i know i will.
silly little thing said she was trying to catch a fish. this is the 4yo who says things like "perhaps" and "stupendous", who can do 2nd grade math and read 1st grade books, who can explain a pundit square better than most adults, but she jumps into an 8 foot deep river because "i saw a fish!" *shakes head* i guess sometimes i forget that she's still only 4 and by definition four is an impulsive age. i've warned her a million times not to go in the deep part, but she's only four, she just didn't think. when she recovered enough to talk, she gave me and my mom a hug and said "you guys are my heroes, you saved me! grandma, you're like Batman!" she is such a precious little thing, and i'm just thanking my lucky stars that she's ok.
but i just wanted to give a little reminder of how fast disasters can happen, how it only takes a second of distraction to lose them. i know i will never ever let that happen again. hug your little ones for me, i know i will.


Clarity,
I am so sorry that happened to Alleria, how scary for her and for you! She sounds just like my ods. It is almost shocking sometimes when he does things that are age appropriate. Tell Alleria we think her mommy and grandma are heroes to!
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How scarry! I wouldn't have known what to do, either, especially if I was holding another small child and the shore was so far away!