Alicia's story

My friend, Alicia, sent me her recount of what happened to Ryker. She is the one who called 911 and took care of that end of business. It also has a lot of detail and information that I didn't remember. This was written to me as her best memory of what happened so when she is citing "you" she is speaking to me and "I" is Alicia.

It is really interesting because it gives another point of view and also tells what happened on the 911 call.

I remember having a good afternoon, and the whole determining that board did not work, for some reason i thought we had told them it did not work, but maybe that was just our conversation. Anyway, They were all playing on the steps, Kam on the top one, baby in water, Seth standing on one of the lower ones and I thought Ryker was on the second one or maybe first with Kam. We were playing and talking facing the kids, when I looked and saw Ryker floating next to the railing, at that same moment Seth pulled on the back of his head (hair) and said "Hey, Ryker, are you okay?"... "Mom!"

I think I went into shock at this point, because my mouth opened and eyes got big, you swam over there, and pulled him out, I swam with you and said Oh my god, is he okay? Which seems like a stupid question now, I was just hoping he was okay. I looked at his face, it was blue and gray and was losing all normal color. You said no he's not, started screaming Ryker, Ryker wake up slapped his face then started CPR, I ran and got my phone called 911, I remember the first few sentences I could not talk just need ambulance, he's not breathing or heartbeat, He drown, we need help, she was asking me all these really specific questions, like what EXACTLY happened, how old he was, where exactly we were, i just told her at a pool east of redwood and 3100 south. I swear she asked me that like five times. All i could tell her is i don't know we were playing in the pool he was face down his brother asked if he was okay, he's not breathing! I'm kneeling next to him. she asked me if there was an ADD or AFD something like that, i repeated it she told me what it stood for, i looked up and around (I'm assuming something to help with the breathing) told her no, then got up to look for a CPR kit, all the while you're still SCREAMING for help and doing breaths. I just kept thinking oh dear god, he's dead, he's dead, please please just let him come back, he's only 5, my friend, she needs help just let him be breathing when i get back.

i really did know he was dead in that moment and just said a prayer because i did not know what else to do, we were doing all that we could and we needed something larger than life to help. Then of course I come back and he's not breathin. STILL. I looked down at my hand and I am shaking like I've never shook before trying to hold that phone. that other girl came over and was playing with the girls kinda watching them.... then the dispatcher told me i needed to get the exact address so I went out again looked at the street sign and told her, she kept asking if we were at a county pool, i kept saying no! we're at a pool in a neighborhood (it was kinda frustrating the questions she kept asking me but maybe I wasn't really making sense now that i think about it because I was having a hard time talking). I came back and he had a heartbeat but was not breathing, finally he started breathing and making those gurgling noises then i followed what the lady on the phone told me do... listen for breathing, look at his chest, turn him to the side, make sure he doesn't have any throw up in his mouth, then open his air ways by putting one hand on the back of his neck and one hand on his head and telling her every time he took a breath. then asked if he was responding, he just kept barely opening and closing his eyes, I think right before then was when we heard sirens. They took him in the ambulance and we basically packed up the stuff and went.

I got your girls out of the pool and asked Seth to help us put away stuff he says to me "I thought we were going to stay and swim more, we aren't going to swim?" haha, I also remember him saying, "He better be okay because he's my brother, I'm his big brother" that was while he was still not breathing and I almost started to cry. Anyway, he was a very brave little guy, letting me in and out when I needed, trying to help you, and he didn't panic, he saved his brothers life, none of your kids even cried. And you were amazing. Seriously, maybe it's just mother's instinct but you acted fast and were reasonably calm for the situation. This was by far the scariest day of my life. like I said I've dealt with people passing out or not breathing stuff like that when i worked at the shelter, but it's so different when it's a child, and your friends child. Man my heart and blood has never pumped that fast, it seemed like every second was a minute because he wasn't breathing but at the same time, it seemed like it all happened so fast. I can only imagine what you were feeling was 100X worse.
Then I got home and my husband discovered I had a huge goose egg from hitting my head lol.
Anyway, you did good. I'm glad there was two of us there because that would've been hard doing cpr and trying to talk to someone at the same time.

I just keep thinking, how did neither one of us see him if we were watching them you know? when i saw his head next to the hand railing i was scared he might hit it. crazy. and i've had nightmares all weekend of him drowning and the whole thing.

I'd like to add one more thing to the story.... when we were loading up the van you asked me to call joe and i looked at you and said are you sure you want him to get this call from me (i was terrified of telling him) and you said just call and ask him where he's at and tell him i'm coming to get him. I'm grateful he didn't answer at that time lol....