A two-year-old child nearly drowned but recovered from the near-tragedy to stun her family with her first move after regaining consciousness.
Catalina Ackers slipped out of her home in Seattle and into a neighborhood retention pond.
She was saved only after her mother Natalie Holiday sensed something was wrong and enlisted the rest of her family to search for the missing girl.
Holiday’s 12-year-old son spotted his baby sister in the pond.
“He saw her pink shirt and she was floating face down in the water,” he told KOMO.
He dove in and carried her out, after which a neighbor performed CPR.
The family was ecstatic when the girl spit up water and started crying, but they were left stunned when the “different child” started speaking for the first time. Catalina is developmentally delayed and her motor skills are challenged, and she previously only gestured to communicate.
Now, she can’t stop talking.
“She is speaking clear language, words,” her mom said of the moment everything changed. “So something clicked, her face is the same, but as her mother—she is a different child.”
