VENICE, Fla. — These types of stories often don't end like this. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more children ages 1–4 die from drowning than any other cause of death.
Two-year-old Paul Bellamy is a miracle.
It was Thanksgiving Day, and the Bellamy family had finished up their meal and wanted to spend the rest of their first Thanksgiving in Florida at the beach.
The family of five had just moved to Venice, Florida, in August from Washington state. They were hit by catastrophic Hurricane Ian in September but fared OK. Little did they know their life's biggest adversity was yet to be later that year.
With the Florida sun shining, Hannah Bellamy went upstairs with the kids to get everyone changed into swimsuits. She thought she had all three children. Travis Bellamy started to load up the car with the beach gear.
It turned out that only the two older children, 6-year-old Kate and 4-year-old Lisa, were upstairs with Hannah. When they came downstairs, Hannah and Travis looked at each other asking, "Where's Paul?"
Hannah said she saw the door open and ran immediately to their pool. There was 2-year-old Paul floating face down in the water.
"I just had to get him out, and I just prayed that he was still there," Hannah said through tears three months later.
Travis started screaming and neighbors ran to help. They said a former deputy fire chief started CPR. In the initial hours and days, there were few signs of life.
"To be honest, I didn’t really have much hope the first two days," Travis said.
Hannah remembers the update from a pediatric ICU doctor: "She said to keep hope but they couldn’t promise anything."
After a week on an aggressive ventilator followed by a regular ventilator, and then a weaning process, Paul opened his eyes a few days before Christmas.
"He cracked a big Paul smile," recalled Travis, who was there alone because the parents had started taking shifts at the hospital.
From there, Paul's medical staff revolved around rehabilitation and therapy. Hannah said he has an anoxic brain injury.
Paul's pediatric occupational therapist at Johns Hopkins All Children's Hospital, Brennan Batten started working with him in December.
"He was super agitated, didn’t want to be touched," Batten said.
Months later in March, the Bellamy family shared their story with local reporters. They hope to prevent another child from drowning.
"I mean we all know how dangerous water is but we just thought, we move down here with the doors open, sun shining. In Florida, that’s the last thing you should do when you have children," Travis said.
They've added a handful of safety precautions to their house, including alarms and pool fencing but Hannah warns barriers only slow down a child. They can't be solely relied on.
Petra Stanton, the Johns Hopkins All Children's SAFE Kids Coalition Drowning Prevention Specialist says tragedies like this can happen to anyone. They often happen to attentive parents. It can happen in seconds.
Especially in Florida, where we're surrounded by so much water from canals to ponds, to oceans and pools, Stanton recommends instilling drowning prevention protocols into your daily life.
Click here for Water Safety Tips from Johns Hopkins All Children's Hospital.