You know what’s crazy? I’ll tell you what’s crazy.™
The power of prayer.
I spoke to a mother today who had to do CPR on her own toddler.
The boy fell in the pool. She says she only left him for a few minutes to make him a sandwich. When she returned, she didn’t see him.
As she talks to me she is over come with guilt.
I tell her that every parent has had a similar moment, that it happens. Kids are kids and will get into stuff.
She says when she came out of the house, her eyes search for her son, but she can’t find him. It’s quiet, sickeningly quiet.
Her eyes immediately dart to the bottom of the pool and she is overwhelmed with the surreal, nauseating thought that her baby is dead.
She jumps into the pool and pulls her child to the deck.
What’s going through a momma’s heart right then I ask.
She looks at me and sniffs. Her eyes well with tears. She is over come by guilt and grief and the pressure of a 1000 atmospheres.
For 12 seconds her lip quivers and she wipes away full, emotionally charged tears.
Then from out of nowhere, a little voice says “don’t be sad mommy. Don’t be sad.”
You want to pick him up? I say smiling.
She leans over and picks up her little boy. If I wasn’t here telling the story of his near death, I’d never have a clue. He is beautiful and perfect. His hair is blond and blowing in the summer breeze. His eyes are wide and curious and he has a little truck that he pushes and soap bubbles churn out the side.
The mother hugs him tightly.
“Dont be sad mommy,” he says again.
“Ok, I won’t be sad. I’m happy. I’m happy you are here,” she says.
It’s an awesome moment.
I can see the power of the child resuscitating the mother. But it was only a day ago that this mom was bringing her own child back to life.
“He was blue and lifeless,” she says clutching the child to her bosom.
The woman is a critical care nurse, and a registered RN. She has skills, but she says she thinks she went into mom mode more than anything else.
I’m not sure what Mom Mode is, but if I could bottle it, I’d be the next Zuckerberg.
The mother puts her little boy down and he scampers off to the grass to push his bubble truck around.
“That’s a great age,” I say. “it’s my favorite.”
She smiles.
She tells me how she calls 911 and begins doing chest compressions. She says she cleared his airway and watched his chest begin moving up and down.
She says she said a prayer to the Lord while the weight of the Earth was pressing down upon her.
“I’m saying come back to me. Come back to me. In my head I am asking the Lord to bring him back to me.”
Then he whines, then he cries, then he throws up water, she says.
That’s a good sign right?
“it’s a wonderful sign,” she says.
“His color returns and he continues to cry.”
She says her thoughts go from my baby is dead, to my baby might have brain damage.
She asks her son if he recognizes her.
“Your momma,” he says clinging to her. “That’s when I think I took my first breath,” she says the tears welling in her eyes again
I tell her she is a hero. She says she isn’t. Her husband and I will have none of it and let her know that she is a hero and that things happen and she was at the right place at the right time.
The child is fine. Now she encourages all parents to learn even a little CPR.
I would say this mom also endorses belief in a higher power. When a miracle is needed, one was granted.
A mother in mom mode, coupled with a little CPR knowledge all in the guiding hand of God.
That’s a pretty awesome combination, I’d say.
Just then the little bubble truck zooms by.
The power of prayer.
and that is crazy.™