02.46 am, Thursday May 24 2012

Sydney parents save toddler after bath drowning

19:00 AEDT Mon Aug 9 2010
By Peter Overton, Nine News
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Joshua Wallace amazed doctors after making a full recovery. (Nine News)
Joshua Wallace amazed doctors after making a full recovery. (Nine News)

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A Sydney mother and father have described how they revived their son after he drowned in the family home's bathtub.

Kristen Wallace, from Emu Heights, said she was horrified to find her 16-month-old son Joshua floating face down in the bath one evening last month.

"Mummy! Mummy! Josh is sleeping in the bath," Mrs Wallace heard her other child Brodie crying from the bathroom.

When she phoned emergency services, her little boy had stopped breathing.

"I just walked out for that split second," Mrs Wallace, 29, told Nine News. "I thought he was dead."

The triple-O operator coached Mrs Wallace and husband Greg, 30, on how to perform CPR. After 10 frantic minutes, Joshua began to breathe again.

He was taken to the Children's Hospital at Westmead and put in an induced coma — but the outlook was grim.

The toddler's lungs had collapsed and doctors said he might never wake up.

But after four days he stunned everyone when he twitched his finger, signalling he would make a recovery.

Joshua has now returned to full health, although doctors will continue monitoring him until he turns five.

To donate to families who have lost or who have brain-damaged children as a result of drowning, please visit the Samuel Morris Foundation.

 

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