Friday, May 6, 2011

Water Park Mishap with a Special Needs Child

Don taught Cody, our son with special needs, to swim when he was around 4 years old by having him hold on to his back. They looked kinda like this (only in water)...




Swimming with our children and teaching them to be comfortable in water was important to Don and I. When they were younger, we would frequent this indoor water park, Splash!...




The facility had a wave pool and a nice water slide. We loved it.



Cody was around ten years old when Don and I decided we should let him go down the slide by himself. After all, if one of us took him to the top and the other one waited for him at the bottom, nothing could possibly go wrong, right?


Wrong. Cody got to the second big turn going down the slide and almost flew out. He was too light. In fact, the only thing that saved Cody was the fact that the water didn't quite lubricate the side of the slide and he got stuck. Cody just sat there.

Panicking, I ran past everyone in line and up to the platform where Don and the lifeguard stood. Don and I began yelling "Scoot Cody! Scoot! Scoot!" We looked something like this, except I was hysterical (and I don't mean funny)...




Cody "scooted" until he was back in the flowing water. He went on down the slide, oblivious to the fact that he was ever in danger.


To this day, I prefer enclosed water slides.




The pictures of 'Splash!' belong to Paul Lane. Our family is not in any of them, but the facility is the same.

2 comments:

autismand said...

We went on a ride where you sat in a rubber ring and let the current take you down. BB fell out of his ring and the current was too strong for me to reach him, I got washed past him. He wasn't in danger as the water was only ankle deep, but trying to hold onto the edge of the slide and haul myself back to him, against the current, was a very panicky situation.
We haven't been back, needless to say!

dluvscoke said...

bbsmum- Oh wow! That must've been terrifying, to say the least.

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