‘He’s alive because of them’: Mother thanks heroes after autistic son’s near-drowning

After five minutes of looking within the park, Kiley and dozens of citizens in the area had extended the search before a friend of hers saw a green shirt in a nearby pond.

Kiley explained her son is naturally drawn to water.

She ran as fast as she could and jumped in to grab her son, who was floating in the water.

After pulling him out, the mother began CPR in an attempt to remove the water from his lungs.

It was only a few minutes before a man and his wife jumped in to assist with CPR as they waited for EMS to arrive.

“He was gone when I found him; he was not responsive, and I thought he was dead. At the time, he was,” Kiley said.

“The neurologist confirmed that the CPR in that 15-minute time frame is what saved his life.”

The couple had been doing CPR for 10 minutes until RCMP and EMS had arrived on scene.

EMS took over and even used a defibrillator to restore the boy’s heartbeat. They eventually moved August into a helicopter after STARS Air Ambulance arrived, and he was taken to the Alberta Children’s Hospital in Calgary.

“I was not letting him get on that helicopter without me because if he was going to die, he wasn’t going to die without his mommy beside him,” Kiley said.

Kiley said even on the way to Calgary, August had begun breathing on his own despite being on a ventilator.

“There’s no doubt that those people and the EMTs all did an amazing and remarkable job in saving his life,” she added.

Road to recovery

Since that day, Kiley has been by her son’s bedside in the Alberta Children’s Hospital as August continues to recover.

Kiley described his recovery as a miracle, as her son has battled through multiple organ failures due to severe damage.

The very first day in hospital, doctors told the mother it was very unlikely August would make it through the night.

The boy had suffered cardiac arrest when he was first found unresponsive, and there were fears that he was going to have to be on breathing tubes and dialysis for the rest of his life.

There were also concerns that his brain may not fully recover as well.

However, after an MRI, staff at the children’s hospital, who she said also deserve a ton of credit, determined there wasn’t any severe damage to the brain.

Today, August is now in the rehabilitation portion of the hospital, and doctors anticipate he’ll make a full recovery.

He won’t be jumping out of bed any time soon, but he’s made remarkable progress, including a full recovery of his lungs and heart.

He goes through physical and occupational therapy every day and has been taken off all IV medications.

“For now, the sprint is over, and we’re in the marathon stage of his recovery. He is going to have to learn how to walk and talk again, but it’s fully possible he can come to a full recovery,” Kiley said.

“I don’t know what I’m going to do to begin to express my gratitude towards these people… I’ve been really adamant in making sure that everybody that was there knows that he’s okay and he’s well.”

by Ian Gustafson

‘He’s alive because of them’: Mother thanks heroes after autistic son’s near-drowning

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