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After her son's near-drowning, a thankful mother hopes others learn from her mistakes

'You're not supposed to see your child in that state, ' Cory Brockelman told WFAA.

COLLEYVILLE — Reliving what she heard and saw is difficult for Cory Brockelman.

“This shriek coming out of my nine-year-old,” she recalled, “and all I see is him carrying Elijah’s lifeless body out of the pool.”

“He is completely blue, he is completely unresponsive,” Brockleman said. “You’re not supposed to see your child in that state."

Brockleman believes in miracles because she can hold one in her arms.

“We are so thankful, so thankful,” she said, her hand stroking Elijah’s blond curls.

Elijah had been in the pool with his older brothers – ages 9 and 12 – in their backyard pool in August. Brockleman was inside cooking breakfast and was about to step outside when the accident happened.

A bee began to swirl around Elijah, and the brothers tried to swat it away and then followed it to the deep end. Elijah went under and neither boy realized it.

“We knew that we didn’t have a pool fence, we didn’t have any pool alarms. We left them unsupervised. We knew all of these things,” Brockleman said, admitting that she is still mad at herself for making those mistakes.

A family friend who was visiting had just been re-certified in CPR and immediately began trying to revive Elijah. They called 911. An ambulance rushed him to the hospital.

After several frightening hours, doctors determined Elijah was going to be fine.

Within weeks, Brockleman enrolled him in lessons with Desiree Whisman, a certified instructor with Infant Swimming Resource, or ISR. ISR teaches infants and young children survival swimming lessons.

“The water is an environment that’s not forgiving,” Whisman said.

During about five hours of lessons over several weeks, Whisman taught Elijah to flip to his back and float – a critical skill that can prevent drowning.

At just 19 months old, he can not only flip to his back, but he learned how to swim from one side of Whisman’s Colleyville pool to the other.

Some of her students are just 6 months old.

“As soon as a kid becomes mobile, the pool becomes a threat,” Whisman said.

By sharing the story of her near miss, and the importance of a pool fence, lessons, and an adult’s watchful eye, Brockleman hopes other families learn from their mistakes.

“My other boys – they have scars from this too,” she said. “To see Elijah able to self-rescue. The boys have come here to watch him. The joy in their faces, it’s been therapeutic for all of us.”

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