It is widely known that drowning is the number one cause of preventable death in children ages five and under. Melissa Garcia, a smart, educated mother of young children, knew that. We hear the statistics. We hear the stories. Melissa Garcia had heard them too.
In fact, on July 20, 2016 she had seen on the news that morning in Las Vegas where she lived, a story about a three-year-old boy who just one day prior had drowned in an apartment complex pool nearby. Melissa recalls, “I remember that in the story he had somehow left his mother’s sight and ended up in the water. His mom found him, pulled him out, and screamed for help. People came out to help her, but no one, including her, knew CPR. I remember thinking about that poor baby, and how sad that story was.” Melissa thought it could never happen to her. Melissa knew CPR. Although the story was heartbreaking, and her heart broke specifically for the mother of that child, she questioned how that could happen. Melissa would never let that happen to any of her babies.
Melissa, holds a degree in Early Childhood Education, has her CDA, and works at a private preschool. Due to the nature of her work, she is trained and certified in first aid and CPR. She and her husband have three children: 10-year-old Jayson, 7-year-old Madelina (Maddie for short) and Miabella is 4.
Her husband, now a government contractor, was still in the Air Force in 2016. That summer, on July 20th, Jayson was 5, Maddie was 3, baby “Mia” was just a newborn and Melissa was on maternity leave. Her husband was at work and she was at home with the kids. It was a hot Las Vegas summer day with temperatures reaching 113 degrees, and so naturally Melissa decided to take the kids to cool down and blow off some steam in their community pool. Besides her own three, she was babysitting two of her friends’ children who were slightly older. Jayson and the other kids knew how to swim, but Maddie did not.
Melissa recalls how Maddie wore “puddle jumpers” on her arms and that she was a good little girl who followed directions. Besides Mia, Maddie was the baby of the group and stayed close to her mom and played in the shallow area of the pool while the older kids played in the deeper water. “We would sit on the stairs, play in the water; she’d jump in and have me catch her,” said Melissa. It was a normal summer day for this busy mom.
Sometime around noon the newborn started fussing and big sister Maddie started to get tired, hungry and cranky. Melissa gave the older kids a 20-minute warning as Maddie began to have a typical 3- year-old tantrum. “Amidst her tantrum she had taken off her puddle jumper,” Melissa quietly remembers. Baby Mia needed a quick diaper change and a pacifier, so Melissa gave Maddie the choice to step into the shade with her and the baby, or to sit on the pool step and wait patiently. She continues, “She finally stopped whining because she knew we would be leaving soon, so I allowed her to sit on the top of the stairs with only her feet in the water.”
Melissa never had to worry about Maddie not following rules. She was a smart, well behaved little girl. Although just having turned 3 in April, she could speak in complete sentences and understand directions. Maddie knew better and would never purposefully move from that top pool stair as she was scared to be in the water without her floaties, Melissa thought. Melissa was not worried at the time. However, if asked, she will tell you it was the “worst mistake of my life.”
Baby Mia could not be soothed, and Melissa was ready to go. She shouted to the kids in the pool to get a move on. That’s when she heard Jayson yelling that Maddie was swimming without her floaties and that’s when she knew something was terribly wrong. She ran to the pool screaming at her young son to grab his little sister; that she did not know how to swim. As she got to the poolside, she grabbed Maddie by her wrist and pulled her out of the water. Maddie’s body was limp and cold; her skin blotchy blue and purple. Maddie was not breathing and had no pulse. Maddie had drowned.
Melissa started CPR and was on speaker phone with 911 as she performed the actions. The community was just being built and the pool area was empty except for Melissa and the children. There was no one around to help. It was about 12 minutes before the first responders arrived. Melissa, the mother of this lifeless child, administered CPR the entirety of that time, trying desperately to give her little girl life. When the ambulance took Maddie away, Melissa stood there in the parking lot helplessly watching. She had no idea if her baby was alive or gone. Imagine. At that moment, she was living the tragic and unimaginable story she had seen on television just hours earlier.
Melissa had to return home with the kids and find care for them before leaving for the hospital, where her husband would meet her. A police officer drove her to the hospital, and the entire time she had no answers. No one would tell her what Maddie’s condition was. In the middle of the sunny summer day, she was in the dark. Finally, upon arrival an officer told her she was alive and asking for her. Melissa remembers his words like it was yesterday: “She’s asking for you mama <said the policeman>, she’s alive. She’s crying for you.”
Maddie spent a few days in the hospital. She suffered two collapsed lungs and some trauma due to the CPR performed on her little body. By the time she was discharged, she had some wheezing, but otherwise was okay. The doctors and nurses who attended to her were surprised she made it; and doctors and nurses from other floors in the hospital who had heard the story would come to see the miracle child. They had told Melissa that they thought she would have been paralyzed or brain dead or living on life support after being under the water and unconscious so long. They were amazed at what they saw.
Maddie does suffer from asthma, a long-term effect of drowning, and she tires easily. Other than that, she has miraculously recovered from her drowning. Although Maddie does not remember that day, Melissa struggled daily with PTSD and depression for three years following the incident. In 2019, she started to heal. She says that part of her recovery has been largely due to being able to open up and talk about that day. Every summer since the accident she has been vocal in her community, promoting the importance of water safety, first aid and CPR training; speaking directly to anyone who will listen and using social media to create awareness.
This new found calling for drowning prevention advocacy led her to Hope Floats Foundation. “Since it was only about a year ago that I have started to heal, this year I had decided to let the anniversary of Maddie’s drowning date become more of a celebration of her life rather than a horrific memory,” Melissa said. She did a ton of research and found there are many swim charities, but decided on Hope Floats because of its mission and reach. This year, Melissa, Maddie, Jayson and Mia held a Lemonade Stand fundraiser outside of their home on Maddie’s 7th birthday. They raised $560 and decided to donate the money to Hope Floats so that they could help kids learn to swim. In fact, $560 will cover 34 LIFE-SAVING swim lessons, for disadvantaged children.
Today, Maddie gets straight A’s in school, dances, tumbles, cheers and (according to her mom) is “incredibly good at everything she does.” Maddie Garcia is Melissa’s miracle and an important reminder of how swim lessons (and CPR training) save lives. By “Swimming It Forward” and sharing her story with the world, Melissa hopes she will help to reduce the heartwrenching statistics of accidental and preventable deaths of children due to drowning.
Written by: Stef Baker, Hope Floats Partner Liaison