On 6 April 2024, three-year-old Ayda from St Helens survived a near-drowning that emergency responders and her family are calling nothing short of a miracle.
Ayda, who is autistic and non-verbal, had slipped away from her grandma and went missing. She was later found unresponsive in a nearby lake.
Merseyside Police officers pulled her from the water and began CPR. Paramedics from North West Ambulance Service (NWAS) and specialist crews from the North West Air Ambulance Charity (NWAA) arrived shortly after.
Ayda was resuscitated, placed in an induced coma, and accompanied by NWAA’s critical care team to Alder Hey Children’s Hospital.
Thanks to the fast response and advanced care delivered at the scene, Ayda made a full recovery. Her mum, Alex, recalls the moment she realised something was wrong.
She said: “I got a call from my neighbour, and she said, ‘Alex, Ayda’s in trouble.’ My heart just dropped. When I got home, the police were stopping cars, checking the boots of people’s cars, thinking she’d been abducted. Then I found out she’d been pulled from the lake. She was face down, submerged. Her nappy had expanded and kept her afloat. I just kept praying, ‘Please let her survive this by some miracle.’
“I was screaming, ‘Please let me get to my little girl.’ I just needed to hold her. But they kept saying, ‘You need to let them work on her.’ I knew it was bad. If there was hope, they’d have given me something to hold onto.”
Ayda was treated at the scene by the NWAA crew as her condition was critical and she’d suffered a cardiac arrest.
One of the Critical Care Paramedics, Rob Evans, treated her at the scene. He said, “We were faced with a child who had drowned, been resuscitated from cardiac arrest, and now had a pulse but was being ventilated. Clinically, we had to stabilise Ayda as best we could. Preparing for a safe pre-hospital anaesthetic was critical. Given how ill she was at the time, just surviving was remarkable.”
When Ayda was stable, she was taken to Alder Hey Children’s Hospital in Liverpool, where Alex was told Ayda had likely suffered up to 20 minutes of hypoxia to the brain.
Alex said: “She had weeds in her hair, mud all over her, and smelled like pond water. I was just cleaning her eyes with saline and gauze. It felt like the only thing I could do.”
After 48 hours of sedation, Ayda woke up, pulling out tubes and showing no signs of brain damage. Alex continued: “She had died. She was dead when they pulled her out of the water, but they brought her back. And now, by some miracle, she’s exactly the same little girl. She came out unscathed.”
Ayda’s story is a powerful reminder of the lifesaving difference made by the North West Air Ambulance Charity. Now, Ayda’s mum, Alex, is preparing to skydive on Saturday, 20 September, to raise vital funds for NWAA, the team she credits with saving her daughter’s life.
Alex said: “I’m just so grateful. It’s an absolute miracle; it’s like winning the lottery. I can’t thank everyone enough.”
To show support for the charity, follow this link to Alex’s fundraising page: https://bit.ly/4pvg0Kn