An Important Presence | Mere Migoya with Ellie Braun-Haley |
Anna's distress level was almost unbearable as she called out her son's name. "How long has he been missing now?" she asked herself. Time was heightened and every second was an agony for the mother of three boys as she searched frantically for her missing youngest child. The Houston, Texas neighborhood was a safe place but that day as scenarios played through her mind, Anna felt danger lurking around every corner. Her boys had been playing with other local children at a neighborhood pool and were pretending to be at the beach. As they played different games utilizing some sand, no one noticed when the almost four year old ventured into the water alone. No one saw his struggles or his still form floating on the water. Until, above the normal neighborhood sounds a woman's frenzied cry drew her husband's attention, "Pedro, there is a child there in the pool!" And Pedro looked to see the small boy floating face down, motionless in the water. Amid much scrambling the little body, limp and lifeless, was pulled from the water. An unbelievable coincidence, a most miraculous occurrence, had somehow placed a doctor right there at the scene. But this was no ordinary doctor. He was a specialist in drowning. He began a series of rubbing, and massage with the little boy and was able to get a response. An emergency call had gone out and a helicopter arrived to whisk the little boy to the emergency room of the local hospital. Anna arrived at this scene as her child was being flown overhead. In panic mode by now, Anna listened as she was told her son had been found face down in the pool and he was being taken by helicopter to the hospital. Not knowing the status of her son was torture for her as she raced for her car and drove to get to his side. She held on to the one thing she had been told. The doctor had been successful in resuscitating her child. Would he be all right? Was he too long without oxygen? How would his brain, his life, be affected? Worries, doubts all hammering at her in her mind, made the drive to the hospital an agony. At the hospital she was taken immediately to be with her son, and saw him sitting on the gurney. He turned to see his mother. She was still trying to digest the chain of events, with a gamut of emotions from the hollow feeling of pressing panic to the pure relief and joy of seeing her son awake. The young boy turned and looked at his mother with bewilderment. Then in a reproving manner exclaimed, "mother, why did you leave me with these ugly men?" The beauty of this event for the family as they look back on the day is the presence of a professional who knew exactly how to help. Why was he there at that time at that location? Only God knows!
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