Wednesday afternoon around 4ish in the afternoon, my sister Mary, my cousin Jennifer Pedersen and I and our children were all outside sitting in the backyard of Mary's house enjoying the beautiful day. The kids were playing with various things and us three girls were sitting in lawn chairs watching them. Connor was sitting on the driveway, spinning a wheel of a toy, which he loves to do.
Someone pulled out a bin of costumes and Bryce and some of the older kids started playing dress up. I remember thinking how cute and funny they looked in some of their costumes and grabbed Mary's camera and took a couple pictures. I remember after taking the last picture of Bryce and two of the cousins, I sat down and instantly looked at the driveway and saw Connor was no longer there. I instantly said "Where's Connor?" Mary, Jen and I immediately hopped up and someone said "everyone look for Connor". Everyone, kids included, went running in different directions. I first looked down the opposite side of the garage from where we were sitting and then scanned the whole, big backyard. At that moment the feeling of panic started to really well up in my chest. I started running fast to the pond, but heard someone say "Here he is" so I turned around and went running back up to the driveway saying "Who said that, who has him?" It took a moment to realize one of the little cousins had said "here it is" talking about a thermometer under his arm. I then ran back to the pond. It is quite a distance from where we were and an older cousin was ahead of me. He got to the pond first and said "he's not here" and headed around the side to check the back part of the pond. I arrived just as he was heading for the side. I was looking so fast and furious and caught a glimpse of some bright red a little ways away from me, floating in the water and realized Connor was in the water and all I was seeing was a tip of the bottom part of his pant leg. I jumped in the water and grabbed his leg and pulled him to me. He was face up but completely submerged under the water, with only a small part of his pant legs sticking up. He was blue/gray, eyes and mouth wide open, completely still. At that moment I fully believed he was gone.
I was screaming immediately for someone to get an ambulance. As soon as Mary heard my first scream she got inside and called 911 and Jen headed for the pond to help me. Michael (Mary's 8 year old son) saw me jump in and grab Connor and heard me scream and turned around to head to the house to tell his Mom, and Kaitlyn (Mary's 5 year old daughter) saw the whole thing. She later told her mom that "Aunt Charlene made a big splash when she jumped in the pond and then she grabbed Connor and tried to get up but kept falling, but Aunt Jen helped them out." Michael related to his Mom that when "Aunt Charlene pulled Connor out of the pond he had a Mohawk." It was really hard on Michael as he is old enough to understand what could have been, but Kaitlyn is too young to grasp the whole thing.
I grabbed Connor up and turned him over in one movement. I put my hand on his stomach and tipped him upside down and kind of thumped his back. He coughed, a small amount of water came out and he was breathing. I wanted to get as close to the house as I could so the ambulance could get to us fast and so I tried to get up onto the ground above. There was a drop off and I couldn't get my footing and climb out. Every time I tried, I would fall with Connor falling with me. (The doctor actually thinks this may have helped as anything logged in Connor could have been jostled by our falling)
I only vaguely remember this part, but was told my cousin Jennifer arrived and took Connor under the arms and got him onto the ground above and then took my hand and pulled me up. I then picked Connor up and held him with his head against my chest, sitting straight up and down in my arms and ran toward the house. My unconscious thinking was to not lay him down so in case there was stuff in his mouth he wouldn't swallow it. Jennifer said that all the way to the house I just kept saying over and over "I can't believe he is alive."
I got to the house and sat down on the carport with him sitting on my lap. We were wrapped in some blankets and towels by Mary and Jen. I was holding him tight against me to feel his breathing. At one point, he let out a big sigh, closed his eyes and quit breathing. I started to vigorously rub his back and call his name and was tipping him back to start CPR and he did a coughing, choking, throwing up sound and began breathing again. It seemed like no time and a policeman arrived first and then the ambulance and the EMT's were there. At that point Connor began to cry. It was a beautiful sound to everyone and one of the EMT's kept saying "that's right buddy, scream if you want to, you go ahead, that sounds great."
Amazingly I was still not shaking and I just kind of went into "medical mode". One of the EMT's helped me carry him into the ambulance and one grabbed scissors and began to cut off his shirt and by the time he had that done I already had off his shoes, socks, pants and diaper and had grabbed some blankets and started to rub him down and get him dried and warmed up. They allowed me to do several things, since they said he seemed calmer when I was taking care of him. I gave him the oxygen, and just kept talking and singing to him. They let me put the electrodes on him to monitor his breathing and heart rate. The EMT's were so great. They were so caring and calm, but doing their job in such an excellent way. They recognized me and realized that they were two of the many that responded the night when Connor was 2 months of age and started having difficulty breathing and we were taken to the hospital at 2:30am.
We arrived at the Martin Memorial South Emergency Room and had a lot of medical personnel waiting for us. We were ushered into a room and I was barraged with a million questions and they began to give Connor a work over. They tried to get some blood from him to do a blood gas test but couldn't get a good vein. This is always a problem with Connor because he has had so much done to him his veins are shot.
The EMT's gave me one of their shirts and the hospital provided some huge, paper shorts and some socks to change into. I wouldn't have won any fashion shows, but it did feel good to get out of the cold and muddy clothes I had on. I actually hadn't really felt any of that until they urged me to change.
Steve has actually beat us to the hospital and was brought into the room. Once Steve was leaned over Connor trying to soothe him while they were trying to get an IV started and I realized that the immediate danger was off and Connor was going to be OK, I began to shake. I had to go sit on the bed next to Connor's and for the first time some of my emotions came out and I buried my face in my hands and let myself cry softly a little. Immediately I had two nurses at my side trying to comfort me and telling me "Mom, it's going to be Ok, you did good."
My whole family arrived soon after and once they had started an IV on Connor and had made sure he was stable for the moment, allowed them to come into the room. So many people came in a short amount of time to see Connor, from friends to family. My cousin and very close friend Sue Mydock came and stayed for a long time. He was a very popular little boy, but then again he always has been.
The pediatrician on call was brought in. He was great! He said that due to the muddy pond water and not knowing how long Connor had been under and the fact that he already had other issues with the Spina Bifida and Hydrocephalus, he needed to go into a PICU unit (Pediatric Intensive Care Unit) for at least a 24 hour observation and get antibiotics administered as a precaution and asked if St. Mary's was OK. I said no, that if there was anyway that he was going to develop problems, I wanted him at Miami Children's where his three main specialists are. The doctor understood right away and said he actually had trained there himself. He did have to twist some arms to get him transferred down there by ambulance and not by helicopter, but he made it happen. The reason for the 24 hour observation is that sometimes things don't start developing until up to 24 hours later. There is risk of infection in the lungs and then sometimes it starts to affect the kidneys.
Two male EMT's came and got Connor and I, and we started on the two hour ride by ambulance. The lights were flashing the entire ride, but no siren. I think we made really good time. At one point we ran into a bad traffic jam and suddenly blue flashing lights appeared and we were escorted down the side of the traffic jam by a state trooper until we were free and clear. Connor was happy the entire ride down. I had his headset CD player on him and he was content to listen to that and actually fell asleep for a lot of the way. These two EMT's had never been to Miami Children's hospital, so before we left Stuart, Steve had given the driver directions and then at the end I just had to show him where to turn a couple times.
We arrived at Miami Children's (a hospital I know like the back of my hand) and were taken to the PICU. It was a long night. They were over-full. We were in one big room with about 16-18 other children. We were settled in around 12:30 am and I basically did not sleep at all and Connor slept fitfully. I sat in a chair by his crib all night, and held him on my chest a lot of the night as he was agitated by all the noise and commotion. He dosed off and on and I probably got a few ten minutes here and there. Every time they would flush his IV and start administering the antibiotics or a stethoscope was laid on him, he would scream and it took me awhile to get him calmed down.
The next day we were taken to a room that we just shared with one other family and Steve arrived shortly after we were transferred there. He spent a good part of the day with us and then went back home that night. We were told that the following morning Connor would need one more dose of antibiotics, one more chest x-ray and blood test and if those were clear we would be discharged shortly after. We were finally discharged around 3:30 in the afternoon. My sister Brenda came and got us and we headed to Chili's for a bite to eat and arrived home around 9pm that night. Home never looked so good and our own bed's have never felt so great.
It was a long, exhausting, anxiety packed ordeal that I never want repeated. Thankfully Connor is too young to remember it and Bryce doesn't really grasp what could have happened. When my Mom arrived to get him from Mary's after we had been taken away by ambulance he asked my Mom "Grandma, why did you let Connor fall in the pond?" Then later he told someone that a policeman had come and taken Connor to jail. It's funny the way kids see things.
What the doctors believe is that when Connor fell into the pond he went into what they call "diver's mode." At that age they don't realize that they should struggle to breathe. Their lungs just close down with the air that is in them keeping them for awhile. They don't struggle, breathe or swallow. We will never know just how long he was under water. I think he was just walking and never saw the water and the earth just suddenly was gone beneath his feet and he rolled into the water. The hardest thing for me besides the vision of what he looked like when I saw him under and pulled him out, not thinking he was alive, is the thought of wondering what went through his mind when he fell and landed in the water. It is hard to believe that they don't try to breathe because when I am bathing him and washing his hair and some water goes over his head he does a sharp intake of breath and wipes at his face immediately trying to clear it.
No matter what, I just remind myself often that he his very much alive, perfectly fine and is still here to love, hold, kiss, cuddle and play with. He is such a little joy in our lives and we can't even fathom life without him. Today, after the morning service to get some closure from the ordeal and get it behind me, Steve and I went back to the spot and I walked Steve through the whole thing and how it happened. You can see where I jumped in and where I tried to get up and I know the exact spot of where Connor was in the water. It will be something I will never be able to get out of my head and sometimes it is hard for me to not see it when I close my eyes. I am just so thankful over and over again that he is perfectly fine and that God spared his life once again.
The word spread so far and so fast and we had a huge outpouring of love, support, prayers, emails, phone calls. I can't imagine going through half of what we have gone through without everyone. Many people have said that they believe that God has something special planned for Connor and that is why he is going through these things and being spared, and I agree that may be true but jokingly said "Yes, but it is going to kill me in the process." Whether God is trying to teach us something or is just trying to give me all the gray hairs that I gave my Mother growing up, I don't know, but I am just so thankful that once again we came through a very scary, close-call ordeal and we are all just fine.
Someone pulled out a bin of costumes and Bryce and some of the older kids started playing dress up. I remember thinking how cute and funny they looked in some of their costumes and grabbed Mary's camera and took a couple pictures. I remember after taking the last picture of Bryce and two of the cousins, I sat down and instantly looked at the driveway and saw Connor was no longer there. I instantly said "Where's Connor?" Mary, Jen and I immediately hopped up and someone said "everyone look for Connor". Everyone, kids included, went running in different directions. I first looked down the opposite side of the garage from where we were sitting and then scanned the whole, big backyard. At that moment the feeling of panic started to really well up in my chest. I started running fast to the pond, but heard someone say "Here he is" so I turned around and went running back up to the driveway saying "Who said that, who has him?" It took a moment to realize one of the little cousins had said "here it is" talking about a thermometer under his arm. I then ran back to the pond. It is quite a distance from where we were and an older cousin was ahead of me. He got to the pond first and said "he's not here" and headed around the side to check the back part of the pond. I arrived just as he was heading for the side. I was looking so fast and furious and caught a glimpse of some bright red a little ways away from me, floating in the water and realized Connor was in the water and all I was seeing was a tip of the bottom part of his pant leg. I jumped in the water and grabbed his leg and pulled him to me. He was face up but completely submerged under the water, with only a small part of his pant legs sticking up. He was blue/gray, eyes and mouth wide open, completely still. At that moment I fully believed he was gone.
I was screaming immediately for someone to get an ambulance. As soon as Mary heard my first scream she got inside and called 911 and Jen headed for the pond to help me. Michael (Mary's 8 year old son) saw me jump in and grab Connor and heard me scream and turned around to head to the house to tell his Mom, and Kaitlyn (Mary's 5 year old daughter) saw the whole thing. She later told her mom that "Aunt Charlene made a big splash when she jumped in the pond and then she grabbed Connor and tried to get up but kept falling, but Aunt Jen helped them out." Michael related to his Mom that when "Aunt Charlene pulled Connor out of the pond he had a Mohawk." It was really hard on Michael as he is old enough to understand what could have been, but Kaitlyn is too young to grasp the whole thing.
I grabbed Connor up and turned him over in one movement. I put my hand on his stomach and tipped him upside down and kind of thumped his back. He coughed, a small amount of water came out and he was breathing. I wanted to get as close to the house as I could so the ambulance could get to us fast and so I tried to get up onto the ground above. There was a drop off and I couldn't get my footing and climb out. Every time I tried, I would fall with Connor falling with me. (The doctor actually thinks this may have helped as anything logged in Connor could have been jostled by our falling)
I only vaguely remember this part, but was told my cousin Jennifer arrived and took Connor under the arms and got him onto the ground above and then took my hand and pulled me up. I then picked Connor up and held him with his head against my chest, sitting straight up and down in my arms and ran toward the house. My unconscious thinking was to not lay him down so in case there was stuff in his mouth he wouldn't swallow it. Jennifer said that all the way to the house I just kept saying over and over "I can't believe he is alive."
I got to the house and sat down on the carport with him sitting on my lap. We were wrapped in some blankets and towels by Mary and Jen. I was holding him tight against me to feel his breathing. At one point, he let out a big sigh, closed his eyes and quit breathing. I started to vigorously rub his back and call his name and was tipping him back to start CPR and he did a coughing, choking, throwing up sound and began breathing again. It seemed like no time and a policeman arrived first and then the ambulance and the EMT's were there. At that point Connor began to cry. It was a beautiful sound to everyone and one of the EMT's kept saying "that's right buddy, scream if you want to, you go ahead, that sounds great."
Amazingly I was still not shaking and I just kind of went into "medical mode". One of the EMT's helped me carry him into the ambulance and one grabbed scissors and began to cut off his shirt and by the time he had that done I already had off his shoes, socks, pants and diaper and had grabbed some blankets and started to rub him down and get him dried and warmed up. They allowed me to do several things, since they said he seemed calmer when I was taking care of him. I gave him the oxygen, and just kept talking and singing to him. They let me put the electrodes on him to monitor his breathing and heart rate. The EMT's were so great. They were so caring and calm, but doing their job in such an excellent way. They recognized me and realized that they were two of the many that responded the night when Connor was 2 months of age and started having difficulty breathing and we were taken to the hospital at 2:30am.
We arrived at the Martin Memorial South Emergency Room and had a lot of medical personnel waiting for us. We were ushered into a room and I was barraged with a million questions and they began to give Connor a work over. They tried to get some blood from him to do a blood gas test but couldn't get a good vein. This is always a problem with Connor because he has had so much done to him his veins are shot.
The EMT's gave me one of their shirts and the hospital provided some huge, paper shorts and some socks to change into. I wouldn't have won any fashion shows, but it did feel good to get out of the cold and muddy clothes I had on. I actually hadn't really felt any of that until they urged me to change.
Steve has actually beat us to the hospital and was brought into the room. Once Steve was leaned over Connor trying to soothe him while they were trying to get an IV started and I realized that the immediate danger was off and Connor was going to be OK, I began to shake. I had to go sit on the bed next to Connor's and for the first time some of my emotions came out and I buried my face in my hands and let myself cry softly a little. Immediately I had two nurses at my side trying to comfort me and telling me "Mom, it's going to be Ok, you did good."
My whole family arrived soon after and once they had started an IV on Connor and had made sure he was stable for the moment, allowed them to come into the room. So many people came in a short amount of time to see Connor, from friends to family. My cousin and very close friend Sue Mydock came and stayed for a long time. He was a very popular little boy, but then again he always has been.
The pediatrician on call was brought in. He was great! He said that due to the muddy pond water and not knowing how long Connor had been under and the fact that he already had other issues with the Spina Bifida and Hydrocephalus, he needed to go into a PICU unit (Pediatric Intensive Care Unit) for at least a 24 hour observation and get antibiotics administered as a precaution and asked if St. Mary's was OK. I said no, that if there was anyway that he was going to develop problems, I wanted him at Miami Children's where his three main specialists are. The doctor understood right away and said he actually had trained there himself. He did have to twist some arms to get him transferred down there by ambulance and not by helicopter, but he made it happen. The reason for the 24 hour observation is that sometimes things don't start developing until up to 24 hours later. There is risk of infection in the lungs and then sometimes it starts to affect the kidneys.
Two male EMT's came and got Connor and I, and we started on the two hour ride by ambulance. The lights were flashing the entire ride, but no siren. I think we made really good time. At one point we ran into a bad traffic jam and suddenly blue flashing lights appeared and we were escorted down the side of the traffic jam by a state trooper until we were free and clear. Connor was happy the entire ride down. I had his headset CD player on him and he was content to listen to that and actually fell asleep for a lot of the way. These two EMT's had never been to Miami Children's hospital, so before we left Stuart, Steve had given the driver directions and then at the end I just had to show him where to turn a couple times.
We arrived at Miami Children's (a hospital I know like the back of my hand) and were taken to the PICU. It was a long night. They were over-full. We were in one big room with about 16-18 other children. We were settled in around 12:30 am and I basically did not sleep at all and Connor slept fitfully. I sat in a chair by his crib all night, and held him on my chest a lot of the night as he was agitated by all the noise and commotion. He dosed off and on and I probably got a few ten minutes here and there. Every time they would flush his IV and start administering the antibiotics or a stethoscope was laid on him, he would scream and it took me awhile to get him calmed down.
The next day we were taken to a room that we just shared with one other family and Steve arrived shortly after we were transferred there. He spent a good part of the day with us and then went back home that night. We were told that the following morning Connor would need one more dose of antibiotics, one more chest x-ray and blood test and if those were clear we would be discharged shortly after. We were finally discharged around 3:30 in the afternoon. My sister Brenda came and got us and we headed to Chili's for a bite to eat and arrived home around 9pm that night. Home never looked so good and our own bed's have never felt so great.
It was a long, exhausting, anxiety packed ordeal that I never want repeated. Thankfully Connor is too young to remember it and Bryce doesn't really grasp what could have happened. When my Mom arrived to get him from Mary's after we had been taken away by ambulance he asked my Mom "Grandma, why did you let Connor fall in the pond?" Then later he told someone that a policeman had come and taken Connor to jail. It's funny the way kids see things.
What the doctors believe is that when Connor fell into the pond he went into what they call "diver's mode." At that age they don't realize that they should struggle to breathe. Their lungs just close down with the air that is in them keeping them for awhile. They don't struggle, breathe or swallow. We will never know just how long he was under water. I think he was just walking and never saw the water and the earth just suddenly was gone beneath his feet and he rolled into the water. The hardest thing for me besides the vision of what he looked like when I saw him under and pulled him out, not thinking he was alive, is the thought of wondering what went through his mind when he fell and landed in the water. It is hard to believe that they don't try to breathe because when I am bathing him and washing his hair and some water goes over his head he does a sharp intake of breath and wipes at his face immediately trying to clear it.
No matter what, I just remind myself often that he his very much alive, perfectly fine and is still here to love, hold, kiss, cuddle and play with. He is such a little joy in our lives and we can't even fathom life without him. Today, after the morning service to get some closure from the ordeal and get it behind me, Steve and I went back to the spot and I walked Steve through the whole thing and how it happened. You can see where I jumped in and where I tried to get up and I know the exact spot of where Connor was in the water. It will be something I will never be able to get out of my head and sometimes it is hard for me to not see it when I close my eyes. I am just so thankful over and over again that he is perfectly fine and that God spared his life once again.
The word spread so far and so fast and we had a huge outpouring of love, support, prayers, emails, phone calls. I can't imagine going through half of what we have gone through without everyone. Many people have said that they believe that God has something special planned for Connor and that is why he is going through these things and being spared, and I agree that may be true but jokingly said "Yes, but it is going to kill me in the process." Whether God is trying to teach us something or is just trying to give me all the gray hairs that I gave my Mother growing up, I don't know, but I am just so thankful that once again we came through a very scary, close-call ordeal and we are all just fine.
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