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Kai Almost Drowned
It was Memorial Day weekend, and Liz and Ken Lewis took their four children to a friend’s house to play in their friends’ backyard and swim in their pool. There were four adults and six children. Three of the four adults were sitting on the side of the pool and Liz, Kai’s mom, was in the pool. Kai, who was four at the time, could not swim. He stayed in the shallow end near the steps, playing near his mother.
All four parents were monitoring the kids in the pool while talking and enjoying the afternoon.
The pool had a fairly steep drop from the shallow end to the deep end. At some point, Kai lost his footing and slipped too deep into the pool to keep his head above water. When he was pulled from the water he was blue and unresponsive.
Luckily, the friends who owned the pool had recently been certified in CPR and immediately began to resuscitate Kai. The paramedics were called and by the time they arrived, Kai had just taken his first breath.
Kai was hospitalized for 24 hours and it was determined that he had swallowed about three gallons of water. Thankfully he did not suffer any other injuries -- no brain damage from lack of oxygen, and no lung or chest damage from the CPR. In fact, a few short weeks later, he was asking to get back in the pool and did. Today, at age six, Kai says that he wants to be a member of his local YMCA’s swim team.
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Liz and Ken Lewis are extremely grateful that their story has a happy ending. But they realize that they and Kai were extremely lucky. They want to let other parents know about the lesson they learned.
You must always actively supervise your children in and around water, keeping your eyes on them at all times. On that beautiful, sunny day, the Lewis family learned that it only takes a few seconds for a child to drown.
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