\nhttps:\/\/www.facebook.com\/maribeth.leeson\/posts\/2772340169462045<\/a><\/p>\n
The reason I\u2019m sharing? This happened in a pool full of people. A pool full of ADULTS. I\u2019ve read so many stories about kids slipping away from their parents and getting into a pool, to be found drowned shortly later. I\u2019ve never considered the possibility that my child could drown right in front of people who were watching him bob up and down from the bottom of the pool to just below the surface, but didn\u2019t think he was struggling because he looked like he was PLAYING. When I found him myself, 2 feet from adults who were in the pool, my first thought was that it wasn\u2019t him, that it was someone else\u2019s kid who was seeing how long they could hold their breath. I can 100% understand why the adults who were RIGHT THERE didn\u2019t recognize that he was drowning because when I saw him, I too thought he was just a kid who was playing. What tipped me off was the kid I saw was wearing a shirt: Adam had gotten in the pool in his shirt. He doesn\u2019t know how to hold his breath. GET HIM OUT!!!! THAT\u2019S ADAM!!!! \u2026I didn\u2019t tell him to get in the pool without his Puddle-jumper on, but I was aware that he had. I simply told him to stay in the shallow end while I got his sister\u2019s swimsuit on, then I would be over. I thought it was fine for 5 minutes, as he could touch just fine in the shallow end, he wasn\u2019t alone because there were multiple adults IN the pool, and I\u2019d be right next to the pool getting her suit on. Wrong. I have never ever been so wrong. He remembers what happened. He said he slipped off the edge. Based on where he was in the shallow end, and where we found him, he means the ledge from the shallow to the deep end. He said he kept going to the bottom then to the top and tried to yell \u201cMommy!\u201d It kills me to hear that. It kills me to know that his last thoughts were that mommy didn\u2019t come for him. But God decided to give me another chance to do better. He gave my baby back to me. Now he knows I DID come for him.\u201d<\/p>\n
I\u2019m sharing this because I want to prevent this from happening to anyone else. Before going to any pool, first make sure your kids know not to get in until the adult who is responsible for them is ready to watch them. That sounds like common sense, but I was thinking because so many adults were present, he was fine, but those adults didn\u2019t know his swimming ability so they didn\u2019t question when he was under water. Second, KNOW THE SIGNS OF STRUGGLE! Adam didn\u2019t look like he was struggling! He wasn\u2019t splashing, thrashing, or screaming. He was simply underwater and couldn\u2019t get his head above water. Third, know CPR. I do know CPR. Could I have performed it in that moment? I like to believe I could have if I hadn\u2019t seen someone else taking charge. I like to think if I had been alone, my survival skills would have kicked in. Luckily, I don\u2019t know, because my amazing friend was busy saving him, but I do know that if I didn\u2019t know CPR, my helping him if we\u2019d been alone wouldn\u2019t have even been a possibility.<\/p>\n
We are so grateful Adam survived. And we are truly grateful to his mother for sharing her story. Raising awareness of how easily drowning can happen will hopefully prevent more stories like Adam\u2019s. Knowing the signs of drowning, knowing CPR\u00a0and<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0knowing how to roll over and float can prevent future Adams. Drowning is still a leading cause of accidental death for children. But drowning is preventable.<\/p>\n British Swim School St. Louis offers premium water survival and swimming lessons for infants, toddlers, children and adults, starting at just 3 months old. We proudly serve the St. Louis communities of Afton, Ballwin, Brentwood, Chesterfield, Clayton, Concord, Crestwood, Creve Coeur, Dardenne Prairie, Eureka, Fenton, High Ridge, Howell Island, Kirkwood, Ladue, Lake St. Louis, Manchester, Maplewood, Maryland Heights, New Town, Olivette, Overland, Richmond Heights, St. Charles, Orchard Farm, St. Paul, St. Peters, Sunset Hills, Town and Country, Valley Park, Webster Groves, Weldon Springs, and Wildwood. Call 314-312-1878 to enroll or\u00a0find a class online<\/a>.<\/p>\n Last week a 5 year-old drowned. (He survived and will be fine so technically he was the victim of a drowning but a non-fatal drowning.) His mother has courageously and generously posted her harrowing story on Facebook in hopes that others can learn from her experience and she begs other to share her post. Her […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":8406,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8405","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-people-stories"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/britishswimschool.com\/st-louis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8405","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/britishswimschool.com\/st-louis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/britishswimschool.com\/st-louis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/britishswimschool.com\/st-louis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/britishswimschool.com\/st-louis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8405"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/britishswimschool.com\/st-louis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8405\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/britishswimschool.com\/st-louis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8406"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/britishswimschool.com\/st-louis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8405"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/britishswimschool.com\/st-louis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8405"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/britishswimschool.com\/st-louis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8405"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Child](\"https:\/\/admin.britishswimschool.com\/app\/..\/uploads\/2019\/10\/child_in_hospital-221x300.jpg\")
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