My dad owned a farm with fish ponds in them. It was the 1st of January 1995. We decided to all go to his farm for New Years Day and spend the weekend. Every one went including my brother, father, husband, my two and half year old son and a friend. This friend I had to coax to go with us.
A couple of days before I had a very bad dream. Having these kind of dreams before I knew that something was about to happen to someone close to me. I cried and prayed after I woke up from this dream and asked God with all my heart to protect all the members of my family.
When we arrived at the farm we all decided we wanted to do different things. I wanted to go fishing with my friend. My brother and husband decided they would check the ponds and my son wanted to ride one of the horses.
In the meantime my father was listening to music and relaxing in the cottage. I was fishing with my friend and my friend stopped to fix the saddle of the horse my son was riding since it wasn't done properly. I got distracted while fishing, thinking my son was with my friend fixing the saddle. I didn't realize he had gone close to the same lake I was fishing in, after a can of soda that was floating near by.
As I was fishing I heard a voice which said "Stop what you are doing and come here". I didn't think twice and I did as the voice said. I left the fishing pole and started walking around the lake. As I did this, I saw my son's small body in the lake. I threw myself in the lake and got hold of him and put him on the grass. The clothes I had been wearing were soaked and torn. I screamed at the top of my lungs for help since I didn't know what to do.
My son wasn't breathing and he was all purple. My friend came running to us. I just said in my head "If my son doesn't make it, I don't want to live, Oh Lord. I don't want to live if he dies". My eldest son from a previous marriage had been taken away from me by his father and grandparents. I didn't want to loose this other child too.
My friend was working on my son, giving him artificial respiration and CPR.
The most weird thing was that he had never done it before and learned it in high school in Peru many, many years ago. As I said before, I had had to coax him into coming with us since he had made all sorts of excuses. As he was working on my son, my husband and brother came over. They just stared and didn't know what to do.
My Dad came over and cried and stared too. Every one was in shock and felt helpless while our friend worked on my son. This impression was very bad on my dad. Little did we know he had heart disease and this would later take a toll on his own health. He also suffered from manic depression and it would affect him for years to come until his
death in December 1998.
My son started to get his color back and cough up the water. We didn't know how long he had been under. My son was on his side now, coughing all the water up and I was thanking God for bringing him back to me. I will never in this life be able to repay my friend for what he did. When my son came to, he was in shock and in a daze so we took him to the house. There were no hospitals near by, so we decided to take him to a doctor that my Dad knew in the closest town.
When the doctor checked him out he found his lungs quite clear, but decided to give him antibiotics so he wouldn't get an infection. My son started to talk again and started to be his old self again. We didn't think he had permanent brain damage or any problems at the time.
A couple of years later when my son started school we noticed certain behavior problems. He didn't concentrate in class and sometimes had bad behavior with classmates and his teacher. I took him to the neurologist who took several tests which indicated that the drowning had caused some problems and that he had hyperactivity and concentration problems. I thank God for saving my child and that he only has minor problems compared to others which have had the same experiences. These minor problems he can overcome in time with our support and treatment.
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