GASTON COUNTY, N.C. — Drowning is the leading cause of death for children between the ages of 1-4, and a family from Gaston County almost joined that statistic when their 2-year-old daughter nearly died at a pool party.
The family's celebration narrowly avoided tragedy and the girl's parents say the outcome was truly a miracle.
For Matthew and Amy Shortridge, it's a day they'll never forget.
"Of course, bad things can happen, but I never, ever, in my life, thought that would happen at my pool with my kids," Amy Shortridge told WCNC Charlotte's Sarah French.
After spending a couple of hours swimming, the couple took 2-year-old Mila out of the pool for the day and removed her floaties. Then the unthinkable happened.
"Something just clicked in me, 'I need to say her name,'" Mila's sister, Adalyn, said.
The 10-year-old alerted everyone to a shocking discovery.
"I heard Adalyn screaming out my youngest daughter's name," Matthew Shortridge said. "She just screamed, 'Mila!' I knew immediately what that blood-curdling scream meant."
He saw Mila floating in the pool and immediately jumped in to rescue her.
"What I saw blew my mind," he explained. "I've never seen anything quite like it. I turned her over and in my hands, I held my 2 1/2-year-old baby's limp, lifeless, blue-gray body."
Matthew, a nurse anesthetist, started life-saving measures as soon as they were out of the pool.
"One of my friends who was a trauma code nurse at the hospital I work at, she came down and immediately together we started CPR," Shortridge said. "I just began to pray, 'God, please open up the lungs of my child, please let me get some air in her.'"
It was at this moment that Amy ran out of the house.
"I just was shocked that something that severe had just happened when we were all sitting by the pool," Amy Shortridge said. "When I knelt down beside her and saw the color that she was, she looked completely dead."
The parents' minds began to race. The seconds felt like hours as they wondered how it could've happened so quickly.
"I had just turned my head," Matthew Shortridge said. "It was not very long at all."
"How did I allow this to happen? What was it? How did I not notice my daughter in this pool?" Amy Shortridge said. "How did I turn my back for a second? How was I so careless? After seconds go by and seconds feel like minutes that it's not working, she's not breathing, you feel so hopeless."
Matthew said his mind began to think the worst.
"For a second I thought I was hopeless," he said. "For a split second, I thought we were going to be a family of four instead of a family of five."
At that moment, they turned their panic into prayer.
"I'm noticing my wife comes down out of the house and she gets on her knees and she's saying, 'I speak life in Jesus' name,'" Matthew Shortridge said. "She's just praying because she doesn't know what to do. My mom is running around the pool, she's praying as well.
"And all of a sudden I noticed her eyes opened and I thought for a moment there's life! At that point, I saw her blink and when she expressed that air, I felt her whimper and cry. I knew then that she was breathing. I said, 'Are you OK?' She nodded to me, yes and then she said the greatest words that I could've ever heard her say. She said, 'Daddy,' and I knew then that my baby girl was OK."
Amy said her heart filled with joy as Mila began to move and respond to the CPR.
"She was saved and she was alive," she said.
When paramedics arrived, Matthew rode in the ambulance with Mila to the hospital, singing a song they'd sing every night before bedtime.
"It isn't any trouble just to smile and she just began to spell smile. Then one verse says, 'So smile when you're in trouble, it will vanish like a,' and she said bubble, and I knew, and I started crying," he said. "I said, 'God, you've saved my baby.'"
An EMS worker in the ambulance patted Matthew on the shoulder and assured him that his quick action saved her life.
"She said, ' Dad, you did a great job. You saved your baby's life. I don't think I've ever been to one of these that's had a positive outcome,'" Matthew recalled her telling him. "I remember just thanking God for the positive outcome we had because it could've turned tragic."
The family remains thankful that Mila made a full recovery. Her parents are convinced it was a miracle that Mila not only survived, but she's thriving.
"I'm just so thankful to Jesus Chris for saving my baby and giving us the knowledge that we need and having the training that I have to be able to know how to save a life in a situation like that," Matthew said. "I truly believe it's a miracle. I call her my 'Miracle Mila.'"
The family says every parent should go through CPR training because that's what saved baby Mila. They also hope parents learn from their experience to keep their eyes on their kids at all times and to never stop praying.
Contact Sarah French at Sarah@wcnc.com and follow her on Facebook, X and Instagram.
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