He rushed outside and immediately began performing CPR on her while 5-year-old Ben ran to get mom. Paramedics and police arrived quickly and rushed Annabelle to the hospital where she stayed for two days.
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. 15/ pic.twitter.com/FIg9Dj2e01
— Adam Lisberg (@adamlisberg) July 1, 2020
“Annabelle spent two days in the pediatric ICU,” Lisberg wrote in his Twitter thread. “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.”
Ruby explained that Annabelle had pulled the mermaid tail up to her shoulders, tucking her arms inside of the material. Annabelle later confirmed these details, telling her parents that she was trying to “play potato” by laying down in the water. But she was unable to get her hands out to get back up.
“Fortunately, Ruby is the best big sister in the whole world,” Lisberg wrote. “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.”
Lisberg told TODAY that he wishes Ruby would have shouted something sooner, “but her first instinct was to protect her sister and she did.”
In the days since their horrific experience, Lisberg says he and his wife have both felt “terribly guilty,” for not being more vigilant while their daughters were swimming.
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. 17/ pic.twitter.com/J0cVyO04m5
— Adam Lisberg (@adamlisberg) July 1, 2020
“We thought we were doing the very best we could, but that one terrible moment, when things can go wrong, happened,” he said. “Fortunately our older daughter was a hero.”
Drowning is the number one cause of death in children ages 1-4 years old.
And it’s completely preventable.
