What could have ended in unthinkable tragedy has turned into the most amazing feel-good story you’ll read this week: a 5-year-old girl rescued her mother from the family pool in Corpus Christi, Texas, last Friday, after she noticed her submerged and unresponsive beneath the water for five minutes–and it was all caught on surveillance footage.
Young Allison Anderwald was in the midst of bidding farewell to her spring break by enjoying a “pool day” with her mother, Tracy Anderwald. Swimming is one of her favorite activities—something she’s been doing since she was two and a half years old. But then things took an unexpected turn, Friday, after her mother suffered a seizure in the pool, forcing Allison to go from five-year-old girl to superhero in a matter of minutes.
Tracy stated:
“I don’t know what happened, but I went into a seizure and whenever I did, I dropped to the bottom of the pool and went completely unconscious.”
Anderwald was underwater a full five minutes before her daughter, Allison, realized something was not quite right. As the surveillance footage shows below, Allison dove into the pool, dragged her mother to the shallow end where she could prop her head above water, and then ran to get her aunt. Allison’s aunt and Tracy’s sister, Tedra Hunt, said:
“Allison came running in and said, ‘Something’s wrong with mommy!’”
At this time, doctors aren’t sure why Tracy had a seizure, but had little Allison not pulled her to the shallow end and propped her head above the water line, Anderwald would have died had one more minute gone by. Hunt said:
“Allison immediately went and rescued her mom. This is a miracle. This is a miracle that she’s alive.”
Anderwald, like her daughter Allison, are both eager to put the entire experience behind them and get back home from their stay at the hospital, though Anderwald does refer to her daughter as her “tiny hero.” She said:
“Hands down, I feel like she saved my life. It could have been a lot worse than what it was.”
In this world filled with war, terrorism and domestic gun violence, it’s not often you find a story so heartwarming, and with a happy ending. Make sure you “eat ’em up like candy” when you find them.
Here’s to children.
Featured image by WZZM 13 via video screen capture.
