Facebook Page for the child who nearly drowned on the Fantasy

[btjhayes]

We were there. Have no idea how long he was under. Was worked on on the deck for about 30 minutes...ish. We didn't see him being pulled from the water...just a lady in her swimsuit giving chest compressions. Later a fellow passenger went on an excursion with her and she said that an 8 year old discovered him under water. He alerted adults and this lady and a male doctor started CPR. So thankful God provided those angels at that exact moment for Chase!

We started praying immediately. Lots of moms were crying all over the ship. Watched his mom and dad run over when they found out...literally etched in my brain. I can still see dad laying on the ground...later read he was pleading with God to take him and not Chase. Mom had to be held up by a friend/family member and a Disney rep. It was HORRIFIC to watch their grief. Medical team came...ambu bagged him. We heard he had a faint heartbeat and then they finally got him on a backboard and transported to the hospital. Police team followed and Disney moved the sail away party to the atrium. We all felt so empty. Hard to enjoy a vacation when this poor family was dealing with their son's life hanging in the balance.

Soooooo glad he's alive..but he needs lots of prayers. We prayed all week! And will continue to do so! Much love and hugs to the Lykken family...and especially to Chase the Warrior!!!!!

 

[ariel fans]

Our thoughts go out to your family, we were on the cruise and prayed everyday for you. May god be with you.

 

[Melissa R]

I was there at the pool as well. I watched a man lift him out of the water, and Chase began vomiting. He lifted him up and a woman took him. At that moment, I assumed those were his parents and that he was just getting sick, but immediately I realized I was wrong. The woman placed him on the deck, rolled him on his side, cleared his mouth, listened for a second, and started CPR. I see that someone said he was blue when he came out of the water - I think that I would say he was grey, not totally blue.

I have no concept of time while this was happening, but maybe a minute or two (or a few minutes?) I saw a woman who I think was just walking by (but I'm not sure), look over to see what was happening (because a crowd had gathered). She looked, then looked closer, and then screamed "oh God it's Chase!" I can't honestly remember if she ran off or stayed there yelling. A moment later, a woman ran up and then a man so those were his parents.

Both parents looked like they nearly collapsed, and the woman who knew the boy's name stayed with them. I can still see their faces as they realized what was happening. Quickly, there were disney crew members with them and I saw them give the parents bottled water. I think that I saw the people doing CPR swap out but I never saw crew members take over. However, it got very crowded so its possible that they did.

A day hasn't gone by that I haven't thought about this family. I'm glad they are updating his condition online because not knowing if he had lived or not was tearing me apart. I only wish that the news on his condition was better.

I do want to say that because of how emotional this made me, I cannot swear that my recollection of what happened is totally accurate. This is just how I remember it.

I have never witnessed anything like this and it has really had an impact on me. Unfortunately, it gave me an incredible amount of anxiety about my kids being in the water. My boys are 16 and 10, but it still made me very nervous when we were at the pool or beach. This really reminded me that it only takes a moment for your life to be turned upside down and for an accident to happen, but almost in a way that made it hard for me to be able to very on edge.

Every time I heard the ship horn play "when you wish upon a star" I thought of little Chase and his family.

Does anyone know if the AED was used on chase? They are all around the ship so I wondered about that.

I guess we may never know exactly how this happened, but for some reason, it's hard not knowing the "how." I guess I feel like if I know how it happened, then i can know how to prevent it. My older son heard that he tried to dive in but hit the shallow area around the pool, but I haven't seen any other mention of this.

I do hope that some changes may come out of this. The pool area says no diving, but nothing that I saw about jumping in. I saw many MANY kids jumping in that day, and it was very crowded. My own son jumped in once - I get that kids want to jump in, but it was just too crowded. I even saw an adult male jump in. It would have been easy to land on a child and knock them out.

For future cruisers, I think everyone needs to realize that if you sit in any deck chairs that are not the first row of chairs in the raised deck area, you are not able to see your kids in the pool. I personally have always sat on the edge of the pool because of this.

 

[Silverfox97]

Does anyone know if the AED was used on chase? They are all around the ship so I wondered about that.

Typically an AED is not used a a wet person.

Sent from my iPhone using DISBoards

 

[caribbeandreaming]

I do hope that some changes may come out of this. The pool area says no diving, but nothing that I saw about jumping in. I saw many MANY kids jumping in that day, and it was very crowded. My own son jumped in once - I get that kids want to jump in, but it was just too crowded. I even saw an adult male jump in. It would have been easy to land on a child and knock them out.

For future cruisers, I think everyone needs to realize that if you sit in any deck chairs that are not the first row of chairs in the raised deck area, you are not able to see your kids in the pool. I personally have always sat on the edge of the pool because of this.

I felt so bad not only for little Chase and his family, but also the people on the ship, especially those like you who witnessed it first hand. This was supposed to be a happy time of leaving for vacation, and it turned out to be incredibly sad. I have never witnessed anything that tragic, but I know for me even seeing the scene of a bad car accident or something like that makes me very emotional and it's all I can think about for weeks on end. I'm sure these feelings of sadness overshadowed the joy of your vacation. Things were looking up a few days ago, but I was sad to read the news today that he may not get any better.

I do agree with you about the pool issue. We were on the Dream last year, and kids were jumping in left and right. It's not safe at all. My DS was more interested in the water slide and Aqua Duck, so luckily we didn't spend much time there. They do need to limit the number of occupants. I wish they would just have lines and let a safe number of people in for 10 minutes at a time. I also cannot believe an adult jumped in - what an idiot. It's one thing for the kids to do it, but an adult should have more sense than that.

Again, I'm so very sorry for what you went through and I pray for mental healing for you and everyone else on board that day.

 

[SapphireMind]

Agreed, an AED likely would not have helped. With cases like this, the reason the heart slows/stops is because of a lack of oxygen and resuming the oxygen to the body will do more than an AED. Additionally, AEDs cannot "restart" a heart. They can convert a heart that is in a fatal rhythm into a normal one, but they cannot make a heart that is not working from lack of oxygen work. Epinephrine can jumpstart a heart, but only if the conditions are right. I have rarely seen 1 dose of epi work, usually it takes multiple doses, and even then, by the time CPR has been started, things are pretty grim.

Unfortunately it sounds like this poor family may have the worst possible outcome - a functioning brainstem and nothing else. My heart breaks for them.

 

[Lisavince3]

Just breaks my heart. Can't stop thinking about little Chase and what his parents must be going thru. Every parents' worst nightmare. Continuing to pray for a miracle.

 

[Fielhol]

Every morning I check Facebook to see updates about Chase. I cannot even fathom what his parents are going thru. I hope for strength for his parents and family to deal with this and a miracle for Chase.

 

[JillShari]

Thanks for all the links ladies. I haven't been able to get this child out of my head. As a PT who worked in a hospital, I can see what the docs are saying. As a granddaughter of someone who suffered major damage from a stroke and heard a neurologist basically say the same things, I understand the devastation. My grandmother did walk again but didn't regain her ability to communicate. But, I could tell from her eyes that she was there and heard EVERYTHING i said to her. So, I want to believe that this little boy will get better than this. I want to believe that the docs are wrong and that his little body just needs some time to heal. I want to believe that his parents are really seeing signs of their little warrior... not only reflex behaviors. I just don't know what else to say.

 

[Tinkerjenn]

I have been thinking about poor Chase a lot lately, as I am sure we all have. There have been a lot of tears and extra hugs for my little boy (who has 4 when we were on the Dream last year). I know what the doctors are saying but I am still hoping for a miracle. I know the family wants to get him home to MN so I plan on donating to help get him that flight home. Thanks for being the most caring message board people in the world.

 

[Spodesmom]

First off, my heart bleeds for this family. I have been thinking of them constantly.

My son and I were on the Aqua Duck before the accident. We wanted to go to our cabin and dry off and change before the safety drill at 4 pm, so I bet we left deck 11 around 3:15-3:20. While we were in our cabin, there was an announcement over the speakers saying "Medical Emergency Deck 11" and I remember thinking 'Oh God' and hoping that no one had had a heart attack or something.

At some point later - maybe 10 minutes after the first announcement? - there was a second announcement where they called out two names and asked them to report to Deck 1 immediately. Can't swear I have the deck right but I remembered thinking that was where the medical place was. I did not pay attention to the names, so I have no idea if that was Chase's siblings, or grandparents, or friends of the family traveling with them.

I have been glued to the Caring Bridge and Facebook pages and I am so worried for Chase and his family. We are all praying so hard for a miracle for everyone.

And for those who saw it all up close, I hurt for you too. That had to be terrifying.

 

[Spodesmom]

I had never been on the Fantasy and I was surprised at how many surveillance cameras there were all over the ship. I saw what looked like a ton of them at the pool (along the bottom of deck 12) and presumably the ship people and the police would have been able to see what happened. I don't guess that would ever become public, though, as it is a private thing.

 

[Melissa R]

At some point later - maybe 10 minutes after the first announcement? - there was a second announcement where they called out two names and asked them to report to Deck 1 immediately. Can't swear I have the deck right but I remembered thinking that was where the medical place was. I did not pay attention to the names, so I have no idea if that was Chase's siblings, or grandparents, or friends of the family traveling with them..

I did not hear the first announcement but did hear the second. I have read the entries on caringbridge and there was a mention of siblings Tanner and Ava I think, and while I can't swear to it, I think those are the names that were announced. (I remember thinking that they weren't totally common names.). I am assuming that those are his older siblings. I know there was another adult on deck with the parents (the woman who first realized that the boy was Chase), so I am really hoping that she was there to meet those kids down on deck one. The thought of them hearing about this accident from a stranger on the ship is an awful thought.

In the pictures on Facebook, the siblings don't look a whole lot older than Chase. Poor kids - I feel so awful for them. And to think of how scared they must have been, wondering why they were being called like that. I hope they were together. It also seemed a little weird to me that they were called down to deck 1. I had to take my son to medical while on board, and I didn't know that you can't get to 1 forward unless you go down the forward elevator or stairs. I hope they didn't have a hard time figuring out where they needed to go. Seems like it would have been easier to page them to the atrium or guest services and then take them to a private space to talk to them.

 

[OrangeCountyCommuter]

I thought Ava had written some posts on Caring Bridge. Maybe I am confused but if that's who wrote the posts that person seems older then the person in the photos. (Possibly it's a family name and there is more then one Ava involved?)

 

[Melissa R]

I thought Ava had written some posts on Caring Bridge. Maybe I am confused but if that's who wrote the posts that person seems older then the person in the photos. (Possibly it's a family name and there is more then one Ava involved?)

Ok, maybe I'm wrong about Ava then. I think I've seen posts by a Tiffany also? I wonder if that's who was onboard with them.

Does anyone know if they are dis board members?

Also, since I was on the ship last week, I don't know what I missed after we left the dock. Did the original thread get deleted? The first thing I tried to do was go back to it but I couldn't find it.

 

[ktb2002]

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2820127

Here you go Melissa

 

[ktb2002]

Whoops thats the meets thread....did you mean the original thread of the incident?

 

[Melissa R]

Whoops thats the meets thread....did you mean the original thread of the incident?

Yes, the originally thread about the accident.

 

[ktb2002]

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=3088445

I believe it did get moved to the Community board, but I just tracked my posts to find it.

 

[Melissa R]

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=3088445

I believe it did get moved to the Community board, but I just tracked my posts to find it.

No, that's not the original one. There was an earlier one because I posted to it from the ship before we left port. I don't see it by searching for my posts, so I guess it was removed.