Mom issues terrifying 'dry drowning' warning after her young daughter ended up in the ICU for a WEEK
A mom has issued a terrifying warning as she laid bare her young daughter's brush with death from a dangerous condition that started with an innocent, carefree day at the pool.
Annie, who goes by @annieeileeng, was enjoying a beautiful day poolside with her then-five-year-old daughter, and everything was apparently going swimmingly.
That is, until her daughter suddenly 'jumped in the water' and was submerged for just a moment.
'It was two seconds. She breathed in a little. She came out, she coughed it up,' described Annie on TikTok of the fleeting incident.
Mom Annie described a terrifying incident from years ago when her then-five-year-old daughter had a brush with death after a mostly uneventful day at the pool
Annie later emphasized that, after coughing up the water, her daughter seemed completely fine and in fact had wanted to keep playing.
'I thought we were good,' admitted Annie - and the pair eventually returned home.
There, her daughter seemed sleepy, and 'took a little nap,' the mom continued.
'We'd been in the sun all day, no big deal. She climbs to my bed at 11 o'clock at night. She's warm?! She says, "I don't feel good."'
At first, Annie reasoned: 'Well, we've been at the pool all day. We've been in the sun. Normal.
'But my gut doesn't sit right,' she continued.
She then called both the doctor she had been dating at the time as well as 'all her friends' - and, according to Annie, everyone agreed that the daughter was 'fine.'
Still, Annie couldn't shake off a feeling of unease, adding: 'My gut says she's not fine.'
After jumping in the pool and being submerged for just a couple seconds, Annie's daughter had apparently inhaled a little bit of water - which was enough to cause aspiration pneumonia (stock image)
She then recalled seeing an article on Facebook warning about the dangers of 'dry drowning.'
'I say, "We're going to the hospital right now."
'When I got to the hospital, they said, "If you did not bring her in here, you would have woken up with a daughter who was passed away next to you,"' Annie recounted.
She then described how they were airlifted to a nearby children's hospital, where her daughter was kept in the ICU for a week.
'And it was not until the very last day that she got an ounce better. And I thought she would go.
'And it was freaking scary. And everybody should be aware of the safety hazards of being in the water,' Annie concluded.
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In a later TikTok, Annie corrected her use of the term 'dry drowning.'
In truth, 'dry drowning' happens in the moments after you accidentally breath in water. While the water doesn't reach your lungs in an incident of 'dry drowning,' the shock causes laryngospasms - or spasms of the vocal chords - making breathing impossible.
Annie's daughter in fact had a condition called aspiration pneumonia.
Aspiration pneumonia is an inflammation or an infection of the airways after 'food or liquid is breathed into the airways or lungs, instead of being swallowed,' according to Penn Medicine.
Aspiration pneumonia can cause symptoms including fatigue and fever, which lines up with what Annie observed in her daughter.
In the mom's follow-up explanation: 'Aspiration pneumonia is where you breath in a little bit of water and some of it gets trapped in your lungs, and then your lungs start filling with your own fluid basically.'
Annie also added that 'there was no blue lips, blue face, vomiting or coughing. None of that was there.
'It was just, "Mommy I don't feel good," and a gut reaction. That's all I got,' Annie explained.
She added in yet another clip that the incident happened 'many years' ago, and her daughter is now a 'healthy, thriving, beautiful young woman now.'