New Jersey dad Adam Lisberg recently took to Twitter to share a pretty horrifying story about his 5-year-old daughter, Annabelle. Like a lot of young children, Annabelle and her 7-year-old sister love mermaids. Like they have in years past, the two girls got mermaid tail swimsuits for the summer. And like they have in years past, they were having fun in their small kiddie pool when the unthinkable happened.
Adam told Today Parents:
“The girls love mermaids — always have. We knew that with it blocking their feet it’s harder to kick or walk — and they knew that — but we figured (the pool) is two feet deep. Even if they sit down they can get themselves up.”
Adam also says that he and his wife always supervise their daughters while they are in the pool, even though it’s only 2 feet deep. But in this particular moment, his 5-year-old son had decided to make guacamole on his own, so he was a little distracted — and as nearly every parent knows, it happens.
“Every parent knows you have to watch every kid like a hawk, and you have to be careful all the time, but I thought, ‘I have two girls in the pool keeping an eye on each other, right below the kitchen with the window open so I can hear them. Meanwhile, I have a son who’s about to squish avocados all over the kitchen.”
What happened next is really, really scary. Adam said he heard his daughters crying, and he raced outside to check on them, but they were fine. But then his older daughter came into the house and said Annabelle wasn't breathing.
"I'm thinking, 'This is not how it's supposed to end. It's a wonderful, happy Sunday afternoon, the girls are having so much fun in the pool, it's not supposed to end like this."
"But when I got over to her, her eyes were wide, she wasn't moving, and at first I really thought she was dead."
It turns out that Annabelle had worked her arms down into the mermaid tail while "playing potato."
"She pulled it up to her shoulders and ended up under the water."
He continued, "She tried to reach for the part she could pull off, but couldn't move her hands and bubbles came out when she tried to talk. I think that put her into shock — she just realized that she couldn't do anything."
Adam knows how important water safety is, and he decided to also share the story on Twitter. He said that he chose to share it for a really powerful reason: "I'm telling it as a warning about kids, pools and swimsuits because I don't want anyone else's kids to end up in the ER or the ICU, like she did for two days."
He also shared a photo of his daughter stepping out of the pool, so that anyone following along can see that it's not deep at all. In fact, a lot of us have probably played in pools this size, or we have them for our own kids. It looks really, really safe.
He went over the story again: "Sunday afternoon, the mermaids were in the pool. I was in the kitchen overlooking the pool, window open so I could hear them, looking at them every minute or two. Then Ruby came inside and told me calmly that Annabelle was underwater, and wasn't moving, so she pulled her out."
"Is this a prank? No. Really? Swear to God. I looked outside — Annabelle was lying on the ground next to the pool, arms inside her mermaid tail, not moving. I ran outside. I hoped it was a prank. She was lying exactly like a TV mermaid washed up on the shore. But when I picked her up, her eyes were wide open and she didn't react."
"My God — she's dead. Then she coughed a little. Her eyes didn't change. How long was she under? Is this what no oxygen to the brain looks like? I took a CPR class when Ruby was born — what do I do again? She coughed again. I sat down, put her over my lap, slapped her back. She coughed again and started crying. Water, mucus, then vomit. This is all good."
"Then a blur — called 911 (first cop arrived within in four minutes!), son Ben got mom, au pair Mari ran down to help. Annabelle starting to cry more, still can't form words. And here's why I'm telling this story: Ruby said Annabelle pulled that mermaid tail up to her shoulders and tucked her arms inside. And as Annabelle told us later, she tried to 'play potato' (?!?) by lying down in the water. But she couldn't reach her hands out to get up."
"Annabelle said she tried to talk, but the words just turned into bubbles. I will never get that image out of my head.
"Fortunately, Ruby is the best big sister in the whole world. She saw Annabelle wasn't coming up, so she pulled her head out of the water and then pulled her completely out of the pool, scary wide-open eyes and all. She guessed Annabelle was only under for about 30 seconds."
"By now my wife Carrie was holding Annabelle, who was starting to form words as her eyes shrank back to normal. The paramedics measured good blood oxygen. Half a dozen cops high-fived Ruby because she was a hero. Ben was shaking and on the verge of tears. It's scary."
Adam also shared what Annabelle went through at the hospital. "Annabelle spent two days in the pediatric ICU. Even a little water in the lungs, especially if it has chlorine, can spark a delayed reaction as the body fights the injury. She had a temperature and elevated pulse and breathing for almost a day after. Needed oxygen to kick it."
Happily, she is doing much better now.
"Finally she came home, still the same giggly bubbly silly sparkly girl she was, just fighting us when we try to take the last two EKG leads off her chest. We are indescribably lucky. I cannot imagine what it's like to be the parent who didn't get lucky like this."
He ended the series of tweets by reminding every parent out there that nothing, especially safety, is promised.
"So — thank you for reading this. Frankly, I hope this haunts you. I share it because I want you to never take any kids' safety for granted, especially in water, no matter how shallow, even for a minute. And maybe skip the mermaid tail. She'll be okay without it."
