Like most three-year-olds, Costa loves the water. After recently learning to swim without a vest he was enjoying a swim in a backyard swimming pool.
But in the blink of an eye, Costa went from happily splashing around to fighting for his life in a near-drowning experience.
Although Costa was fully supervised and confident in the water, he nearly lost his life due to a near-fatal mistake we are probably all guilty of making.
Now, Costa’s mum, Shae Marr, has shared an important message on Facebook, urging other parents to learn from her son’s near-drowning experience.
Secondary drowning and pool inflatables warning
“Yesterday was the worst day of my life,” the mum from Queensland starts. “I took my 3-year-old son to hospital in an ambulance after drowning in a backyard pool.
He was swimming and was having a great time. Then one of those inflatable lounges went over him and he wasn’t strong enough to be able to keep himself up.
He was only under for a second or two but must have gone under when he had no air in his lungs and took a breath under water.”
‘Take inflatables out of the pool when kids are swimming’
As Shae explains, one of her mates was in the water with Costa and quickly pulled him out. Even though he was only under for a second, Costa wasn’t breathing.
“He vomited some water and within seconds lost consciousness and started frothing at the mouth. His lungs were full of water, he couldn’t breathe and went completely purple.”
A friend performed CPR on Costa before an ambulance transferred him to the closest hospital.
“Their biggest worry then was secondary drowning and pneumonia. The lack of oxygen caused metabolic acidosis, his lungs still had water in them, he was on high flow oxygen and he started getting a temperature.”
‘Learn from my mistake’
After careful monitoring, Costa was deemed okay to return home two days later, much to the relief of his family.
But the close call has prompted Shae to turn to Facebook and hopefully let others know that this type of thing CAN happen.
“I wasn’t going to share the details of what happened but I want people to learn from my mistake.
It took a second, under supervision, for me to almost lose my son. I never thought it would happen to me, no one ever does. I’m one of the lucky ones but not everyone is so lucky.”
Floatie fears for young swimmers
The scary thing is that this type of thing could easily happen to any of our kids! Inflatable floaties are a popular addition to most backyard pools. We literally have THREE inflatables floating around our pool right now – a unicorn, a turtle and inflatable lounger.
So the next time you and the kids are swimming in a backyard pool this summer, keep Shae and Costa’s story in mind and remove those massive inflatables.
When it comes to water safety and toddlers, we can never be too careful.
