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About noon Wednesday, Limestone County mother Brittany McCluskey stepped away from the tub where her babies were bathing just long enough to take the pizza out of the oven.
She dashed back to find her 8-month-old boy, Kaden, face down in the water, unconscious and blue.
“Brittany grabbed the boy out of the bath, called 911, attempted to do CPR, ran outside with her two children,” Limestone County Sheriff Mike Blakely said.
The 911 dispatcher alerted emergency personnel to a possible drowning at the home on Thatch Road, located in northeastern Limestone County.
“Outside, the frantic, screaming mother flagged down two ladies — one happened to be a nurse at Huntsville Hospital,” Blakely said.
Gayla Luna of Ardmore and nurse Debbie Clark of Harvest began performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation on the baby.
“Luna said the child’s lungs had filled up and that they let out a lot of water,” Blakely said.
As the two women worked on the boy, volunteer firefighters from Ardmore, Elkmont and Oak Grove-Thatch arrived, the sheriff said. “EMT from Ardmore took over doing CPR and an ambulance had been dispatched,” Blakely said. “When we arrived, the child was in the ambulance and paramedics were working on him. He was MedFlighted to Huntsville Hospital, and when he left in the helicopter he was crying and conscious and the color was coming back to him. We checked on him at the hospital and he is doing well.”
The outcome could have been much different, the sheriff said.
“It could have been a tragedy,” Blakely said. “But, it is going to turn out with a happy ending. We are grateful those ladies happened along and for the quick response from volunteer firefighters (and ambulance personnel).”
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