When a 20-month-old was found dead in a backyard pool, care teams from two cities worked together to help
Waylon Saunders had been dead, according to most medical standards, for three hours.
The 20-month-old boy was found face-down in an icy backyard pool, where he had been for at least five minutes. When firefighters brought him to the Charlotte Eleanor Englehart Hospital in Petrolia, Ont., on Jan. 24, he was cold and unresponsive.
Petrolia is 100 kilometers from London, and its hospital doesn’t have the same equipment or number of staff as a major children’s hospital. On that day, everyone from nurses to lab techs stopped what they were doing and helped bring Waylon back to life.
They took turns giving CPR to the child for three hours.
Doctor Janice Tijssen explains how they saved Waylon in this video:
“In Petrolia, people would take turns giving CPR. “They had many people warm him up in different ways,” said Dr. Janice Tijssen, who runs the critical care unit for children at Children’s Hospital at the London Health Sciences Centreen
She talks about how the team had to raise his body temperature and how, when it got to 28 degrees Celsius, they started to have hope. A team of doctors and nurses from London would go to Petrolia and bring the toddler back to London, where care would continue.
“A lot of people helped him at that time, making sure he was comfortable as his organs started to heal.” Then they let him wake up. “He’s done more than anyone expected,” said Tijssen.
They will always hold a special place in my heart.Waylon’s mother is Gillian Burnett.
Waylon was put on a ventilator and had a tube in his throat. Doctors were trying to fix what they call “organ instability.”
Tijssen said, “We really tried to keep him alive so we could give him the best chance of getting better.”
Inspectors found problems with how the daycare was protecting the pool, so the daycare got in trouble with the city’s rules.
The owner of the home daycare, who is 50 years old, was charged with criminal negligence causing bodily harm on Friday. She will go to court in Sarnia in March.
‘They did something amazing
Waylon’s mother, Gillian Burnett, said that she would be grateful to the care team for the rest of her life because they saved her son’s life.
“They’re heroes,” she said. “The other day I told them that they’re God’s soldiers. I will forever love them, they are like a big family to us. They will always hold a special place in my heart..”