A mom's intuition turned out to be right, and it led to the timely treatment of her daughter from a severe bacterial lung infection that she got from swimming in a pool.
Mom Lacey Grace told The Washington Post that 4-year-old Elianna was at her grandparents' house and swimming and splashing water with relatives at the family's pool. At one point, though, the little girl inhaled and swallowed a mouthful of water. For some minutes, the little girl coughed and vomited but afterward was back to happily playing.
A few days after the incident, however, Eliana was sent home from preschool due to fever. The second time she was sent back because of fever again, Lacey knew something was amiss because her daughter’s temperature was on and off. She decided to bring Eliana to the hospital after reading similar incident involving Frankie Delgado, who was 4 years old. He reportedly died a week after swimming due to "dry drowning" or water accumulated in his lungs causing pulmonary edemaADVERTISEMENT - CONTINUE READING BELOWWhat other parents are reading
“I would never have correlated that fever to the pool incident if I hadn’t read that story about Frankie,” Grace told The Washington Post. “I was like, this is not going to happen to Elianna.”
So, the mom drove her daughter to a clinic where the little girl was x-rayed. Eliana was also already shivering and had developed purple spots on her skin. “The doctor came out and said 'You have to find the nearest emergency room,'” she said. “'You need to pick the closest one. Just go.'”
“At that point, I had no clue how it was going to end. I was so, so, so terrified,” Lacey told ABC News.What other parents are reading
At a hospital, Elianna was diagnosed with an uncommon but severe bacterial infection in her lungs, which caused to lower her blood oxygen levels. Doctors told the mom they could not remove the fluid in the little girl's lungs, but treatment could fight the infection and inflammation.
Eliana was strapped to an oxygen mask and a monitor that measured oxygen levels. According to Lacey, her daughter had “chemical pneumonitis, aspiration pneumonia, and perihilar edema.”
“At least two doctors now have told us ‘Thank God you got her here when you did,’” wrote Lacey in the description of her daughter’s GoFundMe page that friends of the family started.
The mom ends with a plea to other parents, “If your child swallows/inhales a bunch of water, and something seems off at all, I encourage you to immediately get help.”
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