By Wendy Hundley
Dallas Morning News
Copyright 2007 The Dallas Morning News
DALLAS — For Shea Sanchez, the morning of June 28 started out like any other day. The Richardson woman was busy folding her laundry in her bedroom while her 11-month-old daughter, Bella, played on the floor beside her.
The baby crawled into the toy-filled living room when she heard the theme song from the Little Bear children’s show on television and was out of her mother’s sight for a few minutes.
The ordinary day took a harrowing turn when Ms. Sanchez went to check on Bella and didn’t find her in front of the TV. Then she noticed that the wind had blown open the back door that leads to the swimming pool. She raced outside.
“I saw her face-down in the shallow end,” she said.
Unfortunately, scenes like this are far too common.
So far this year, at least 48 children have drowned in Texas, including six in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, according to the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services.
“Children are naturally attracted to water,” said Patrick Crimmins, a spokesman for the agency. “Caregivers often don’t realize how quickly children can get away from them and get into trouble.”
On Aug. 6, Prodige Miamba, 2, of Keller drowned in a community swimming pool after his mother went to get a diaper.
A couple of days earlier, Stephen Stokes, 7, of Fort Worth drowned in a swimming pool during a Bible study gathering.
And on Aug. 19, Josiah Myles, 2, drowned in a swimming pool at an Arlington apartment complex while his mother was sleeping and his father was at work.
But Bella didn’t become another drowning statistic, thanks to the quick actions of her mother and a calm 911 operator at the Richardson Police Department.
Michelle Thompson was working the early shift when Ms. Sanchez’s frantic call was received shortly after 8 a.m.
“The first thing I heard was her scream,” said Ms. Thompson, who has worked as a public safety communicator for 15 years. “She just kept saying, ‘My baby has drowned.’ ”
Even after Ms. Sanchez began administering CPR -- following Ms. Thompson’s instructions -- Bella remained unresponsive. She wasn’t conscious and didn’t appear to be breathing.
“My daughter’s dead,” Ms. Sanchez sobbed as Ms. Thompson tried to keep the distraught mother focused on the lifesaving procedures.
Tilt her head back. Blow two puffs of breath into her lungs. Pump her chest hard and fast 30 times.
“I wasn’t sure it would work, but I didn’t want her to quit,” said Ms. Thompson, whose voice was steady even though her hands were shaking by the time the paramedics arrived.
“I didn’t think she was going to make it,” Ms. Sanchez remembers thinking as her baby was rushed to Richardson Regional Medical Center. She called her husband, Matthew, who raced to the hospital to wait for word from the doctors.
But it was Bella who delivered the good news to her father. “He called me and said he heard her crying,” Ms. Sanchez recalled.
But Bella still wasn’t out of danger. “If the brain doesn’t get enough oxygen for three minutes, it will be damaged,” said Dr. Kyoo Rhee, one of the doctors who cared for Bella after she had been transferred to the children’s hospital at Medical City Dallas.
Initial blood tests showed severe acidosis, indicating that her body had been deprived of oxygen for a long period. “I was almost certain that Bella was either going to have pretty bad brain damage or would die,” said the pediatric intensive care physician.
But when Bella was stable enough to have a brain scan and an MRI, the results surprised her doctors. “We saw a little swelling here and there but not bad at all,” Dr. Rhee recalled. Bella has been given a favorable prognosis.
“I would say it’s a miracle,” Dr. Rhee said.