On August 3, 2009… We spent the day in our backyard family pool, we were a family that spent 5 out of the 7 days in the pool.
On August 3, 2009… We spent the day in our backyard family pool, we were a family that spent 5 out of the 7 days in the pool. I was the first to get out of the pool that day with our 19-month-old to lay her down for a nap. I proceeded to ask my husband to come in with our 3-year-old while I went grocery shopping. Our 10-year-old and her friend remained in the pool though. When I returned home from shopping, I was met at the door by Edna Mae, who had just got up from her nap. I gave her a sippy cup and placed her in a rocking chair in front of the television while I started to put our groceries away. My husband was interviewing a gentleman in our front living room. A moment later, my husband asked me a question, so I went into that room to answer it. That is when I noticed that our slider door was open, I thought “why is the door open” but I did not panic. I leisurely walked into the girl’s bedrooms to make sure they were all in there. Ally, her friend, and Taylor were there but Em was not. Again I still did not panic, I walked out to our backyard to see if she was playing there near the swing set. Walking past our pool, I noticed Edna Mae, our angel, out of the corner of my eye floating in our pool.
On Sunday, August 9th ~ we met with The Organ Donation Team and signed the consent forms. We had approximately 24 hours left with our baby girl. The hardest thing for Shannon and I to accept was not being with our baby girl for her last breath. However, the need to have something good come out of this nightmare overpowered any selfish thoughts we might have had. We were told early morning August 10th, that they placed her heart to a one-month-old in Tampa, both of her kidneys went to a 35-year-old mother of three girls, her liver to a little boy who lives in Florida named Mason and her stomach, pancreas, and intestines to a seven-month-old in Miami. Praise God!
I immediately ran to her and just held her. My husband heard my screams and came running out where he took her from me and started CPR. Moments later, the paramedics arrived and brought her to the hospital, where she fought for a long week. In the days that followed that tragic Monday we were filled with hope, yet also our share of bad news. Edna Mae’s organs were improving, so we believed she was going to be okay and come home. Yet as the tests continued her brain activity declined. Until we had no other choice other than to accept that our baby was not going to be okay.
On August 9, 2009… We met with The Organ Donation Team and signed the consent forms. We had approximately 24 hours left with our baby girl.
The hardest thing for Shannon and I to accept was not being with our baby girl for her last breath. However, the need to have something good come out of this nightmare overpowered any selfish thoughts we might have had.
Our angel helped four families! We never thought this would happen to us, we thought we did everything we could to protect our family. We had locked doors, a pool fence, and thought that she was not old enough to get swim lessons. The one day our pool gate was left open, she found her way outside and this happened. I later found a receipt from that day, I went grocery shopping and checked out at 3:46 pm, I loaded my car with the groceries, drove home from the store, brought the food inside, and started to put everything away when I found my baby girl. I was sitting in the ER watching my daughter fight for her life at 4:15 pm, in a matter of 29 minutes, our life changed FOREVER! Now… Our life mission is to help as many families as possible. “Raising awareness with drowning prevention and organ donation one family at a time”
Our Mission
Raising awareness of drowning prevention one family at a time.
Shannon and I feel lead to help other families avoid the same tragedy. Something good has to come out of us losing our baby Edna Mae. We want to help as many children as possible learn to swim and have their homes prepared to keep children safe.You can have every precaution in place but accidents happen everyday, Children need to know the basic survival skills, so if they fall into a pool or lake they can help themselves. We thought it could never happen to us safe!
In our case… When I discussed swimming lessons with other parents, I never fully offered my opinion. I knew deep down that I should get the girls lesson BUT the classes were too expensive for our one income family and I honestly thought I had time…
Taylor was just barely three and Em was just a year and a half… BUT I have two young children and I am only one parent, because Shannon worked full time. What would I do with the other child while I was in the pool.
We want to take “The BUT” out of every parents mouth.
We now believe God had a bigger plan for Edna Mae’s life. As hard as it is to accept that she isn’t with us, we feel God is using us to make people aware of this problem. Too many children die each year from drowning or are never the same from near-drowning accidents, it does not have to be this way. There are programs out there to help each and every one, we just have to get the word out.
