In 2016, Texas woman Tracy Anderwald was at her sister’s house by the pool when she started having a seizure. She fell face down into the water and was close to drowning until her 5-year-old daughter Allison came to her rescue.
When Tracy found herself helpless in a life-threatening situation, her 5-year-old daughter became her protector. Allison and Tracy were having a delightful mommy-daughter day by the pool at Tracy’s sister’s house. Disaster struck. Tracy unexpectedly suffered a seizure. As she blacked out, she fell face-down into the pool water. In her unconscious state, she had mere minutes before she would drown.
According to WebMD, “a seizure is abnormal electrical activity in the brain that happens quickly.” In serious cases of seizures, this can cause someone to become unconscious or convulse. Seizures may occur just once, or they can occur over and over, which typically would signal some type of seizure disorder such as epilepsy.
Allison saw everything that was happening with her mother. But, instead of panicking and freezing in fear, young Allison instantly decided she would do anything to save her mom. This young girl saw her unresponsive mom’s face in the water and instinctively knew that she’d likely perish if she didn’t act immediately.
Due to this 5-year-old’s quick thinking and strong love for her mother, she was able to come to Tracy’s rescue, inspiring plenty of people along the way. She made sure to run for help the first moment she could to ensure that her mother would come out of the incident OK. It’s not hard to see why so many people are now calling Allison a true hero.
Be sure to reach the end of this article to see the full video 🙂
After witnessing Tracy seize and struggle in the water, Allison amazingly swam over to her mom in the deep end of the pool and pushed her to the shallows. Once there, she could flip her mom over so that her face would be out of the water. Then, with her mom out of the immediate danger of drowning, Allison ran into the house to call for help.
Tedra Hunt, one of Tracy’s sisters, just happened to be walking over to the house when the incident occurred. Allison told her the situation, and Tedra called 911 before running to check on her sister.
Tracy was transported to CHRISTUS Spohn Hospital Corpus Christi-Memorial in Corpus Christi, Texas. She awoke there and couldn’t remember anything that had happened. Thankfully, the home’s security cameras captured the entire incident on video. Needless to say that Tracy was one proud and thankful mama.
Tedra actually told Inside Edition that doctors explained to them that Allison had saved her mom’s life; if underwater longer, she’d likely have drowned. Tedra was amazed that Allison managed to move her mom because she’s a fairly small 5-year-old. She called Allison a “guardian angel.”
Not to diminish Allison’s bravery and quick thinking, but this incident shows the importance of teaching children to swim early too. The family stated that Allison’s swim strength came from the fact she’d been proficiently swimming since she was a small toddler.
Initially, there was a bit of concern that Tracy might have suffered brain damage from being underwater in the pool. Still, she made a full recovery without any consequences and has since been released from the hospital. The family hopes their story inspires others to teach their children to swim early.
