Toddler survives near drowning

Family grateful for emergency personnel

— This Christmas, little Colton Hawkins ran around his grandparents’ Pea Ridge home as fearless as always.

But the kitchen door to the back yard pool was locked.

Today a healthy toddler, Colton shows no sign of the tragedy in which he was involved last fall. An active little boy, he keeps his mom on her toes. But, during a visit last September to his grandparents’ home, he had his mom on her knees.

Colton opened the door to the back yard and fell in the swimming pool, where he was found floating face down by his mother.

His mother, Ashley Hawkins is the eldest of the five children of Jack and Dorothy Maddox. She and her two sons were visiting in Pea Ridge when she came to stay with her younger three brothers while her parents were at a pastor’s conference in Atlanta, Ga. Jack is the pastor of First Baptist Church, Garfield.

Ashley and her two boys -18 months and 3 years of age - had a fun week playing with her brothers Michael, 18, Joshua, 16, and Brandon, 5.

That Friday night didn’t start any differently than any other. Michael, was playing in an out-of-town football game, leaving Ashley and her two sons home with brothers Joshua, 16, and Brandon, 5. Ashley was cooking supper. Then, her little brother came running in the house saying Colton was in the pool.

Ashley reacted quickly, ran outside, saw her son floating face down on the other side of the pool and jumped in to pull him out.

He was unresponsive.

Ashley cried out and immediately began to perform cardio-pulmonary resuscitation. A neighbor heard the commotion and ran to help.

Emergency personnel from Pea Ridge Ambulance arrived on the scene and took over at about the same time Colton began to respond the life-saving measures by his mother. As he was carried to the ambulance for transport to the emergency room of a local hospital, Colton began to cry.

Jack and Dorothy were driving back from Georgia when they heard the news.

“We began to pray, to cry out to God,” Maddox said, explaining that after making calls to church members and family, he called the emergency room at the hospital. “I could hear wailing. It was very disturbing to me because I thought it was Ashley. Then Ashley got on the phone and said ‘Daddy, he won’t stop crying.’

“Is that Colton?” Maddox asked his daughter, knowing when she said “Yes, sir,” that Colton was fine.

Ashley was scared because he wouldn’t stop crying, Maddox said, but multiple tests and a night in the Intensive Care Unit of the hospital revealed no ill effects on the toddler.

Berating herself later for allowing the situation to happen, Ashley complained to her father, who replied that she had saved her son’s life. She replied, “No, I saved mine.”

Recalling the events of the evening, Jack Maddox said he and Dorothy began the drive back with the car’s emergency flashers on. He said they were praying and about an hour after receiving the news, “a real peace came over us.”

Ashley is taking classes to be a CPR instructor. She knows how essential it is parents be trained in CPR.

She had received the training when she was a foster parent. Ashley’s sister Amanda, 22, is also trained in CPR.

“There was a very professional helpful response of the local emergency people,” Maddox said. “Brother Josh was very helpful. He called 911. He stayed calm.

He knew what needed to be done.”

The response of the community and church members was overwhelming.

Within minutes of the ambulance leaving the house, calls were made to fellow church members who joined Ashley at the hospital. One church member, Josh Ramsey, was at the ballgame in Greenland and notified Michael and drove him to the hospital.

Within an hour, there were more than 50 people at the hospital, Maddox said.

“We know our neighbors. We’re family,” Maddox said, expressing gratitude for the overflow of support shown to his daughter. “We were concerned about her being there alone with her baby.”

Michael acted as the liaison between Ashley and the church members at the hospital and kept his parents informed.

The Maddox family is not unfamiliar with battling and overcoming trials. When their eldest son, Michael, was 9, he was diagnosed with Burkitt’s lymphoma, cancer.

Michael has been cancer free for eight years now, but during the early days, Dorothy stayed in the hospital with Michael for 72 days.

“Anybody who’s been through pediatric cancer knows what it’s like,” Maddox said.

At 3 a.m. the weary grandparents arrived at the hospital to find “a very tired mama and a very tired baby in ICU. She’s in bed with him, holding him,” Jack Maddox said.

Area, Pages 11 on 01/06/2010