A Second Chance 4-Year-Old Survives Near Drowning In Swimming Pool

Christmas for 4-year-old Anjee Uhlenkott probably won’t be much different than it was last year - full of wonder, excitement and the comfort of a loving family.

But what happened in between the two holidays has left many rejoicing over a little girl’s return from near tragedy.

“I fell in the water and died and the angels brought me back,” is the way Anjee, the youngest daughter of Ron and Deb Uhlenkott of Asotin, describes her experience. No one is arguing the point.

Not her parents. Not the medical experts who tended her lifeless body or the many people who prayed for Anjee’s recovery.

“If you ask the doctors what cured this kid, they’re going to say it was divine intervention,” said Anjee’s mother, who found her daughter floating face-down in the family swimming pool on Oct. 24.

“If I live to be a million, I won’t forget it. I think because I found her, that image was burned in my mind. There’s nothing more devastating than the prospect of losing your child.”

And perhaps there is nothing more uplifting than seeing that same little girl holding her kitten again and hearing her ask Santa for a toy telephone.

Their daughter’s return, say the Uhlenkotts, is a Christmas gift they want to share with the community.

“I think it was destiny and meant to happen,” Deb said. “It was kind of a wake-up call for us to get our act together. Not everyone gets a second chance.”

The Uhlenkotts also want to thank the many people who figured in their daughter’s miraculous recovery.

Medical experts estimate Anjee was under water for between 10 and 20 minutes - more than enough time to cause brain damage or death. Ron Uhlenkott said he’s only now coming to grips with the accident.

“You feel kind of guilty,” he said. “But the fact is, you can’t watch them all the time.”

Oct. 24 was a Thursday. The family had attended an afternoon basketball game to watch Anjee’s oldest sister, Lexi, 12, play. Deb decided to stay and watch part of the next game. Ron and Anjee and their third daughter Ali, 10, went home.

“When I got home, I walked in and the first thing I asked was where’s Anjee?” recalled Deb.

“She’s in her room,” said Ron.

Deb, a former University of Idaho swimming team standout, checked the room and then immediately ran to the family pool.

“Looking down at the deep end, I saw something at the bottom of the pool.”

It was Anjee’s tricycle.

The Uhlenkotts speculate their daughter went into the back yard because her kittens, McKenzie and Screamer, were out there. To get to the pool area, Anjee had to manipulate a dead bolt lock on a door. Then she started riding her tricycle and apparently got too close to the edge of the pool.

“Ron kicked the screen door down,” said Deb, recalling how she screamed when she found Anjee’s limp body and her husband came bursting out of the house.

The oldest Uhlenkott daughter called 911 while her parents frantically tried to revive Anjee.

“I just said, we’ve got to do CPR until they (emergency crews) get here,” Deb said.

Ron pumped Anjee’s chest while Deb breathed into her daughter’s mouth. It was at that point, the Uhlenkotts say, that something far beyond their control began to figure in their daughter’s chances of survival.

Attending the same basketball game that day was Dr. Craig Ambrosan, an Asotin pediatrician. His friends, Gary and Pat Greenfield, are former owners of the Clarkston-based Northwest Medical Transport ambulance service.

The Greenfields live north of Lewiston and Pat happened to be monitoring her police scanner. She heard the ambulance being dispatched to Asotin.

“Then I heard them say this would be a juvenile female and her parents were doing CPR,” she recalled.

She immediately thought of Ambrosan and called him.

“He just bolted, and he’s not a bolting kind of guy,” Pat said.

An Asotin County sheriff’s deputy was first to arrive at the Uhlenkott home.

“And the next person I saw walking through the garage was Dr. Ambrosan,” said Deb. “I said, ‘Oh my God, you’ve sent me an angel.”’ Along with paramedics Kevin McKiernan, Scott Rinebold and Dan Sokoloski, Ambrosan managed to stabilize Anjee and transport her to St. Joseph Regional Medical Center in Lewiston.

“For all intents and purposes, Anjee was dead,” said Ambrosan, who admits he could do little more than pray for the child while riding with her in the ambulance. “She was as cold and lifeless as anybody you’ll see in a morgue.”

At St. Joseph, pediatrician Dr. Rex Fletcher and emergency personnel prepared Anjee for the helicopter trip to Spokane’s Sacred Heart Medical Center.

When the Northwest MedStar helicopter finally lifted off, the Uhlenkotts were already racing north toward Spokane. Authorities in Pullman radioed ahead that the family was en route to Spokane on an emergency.

At Sacred Heart, the prognosis remained grim. And virtually no hope remained the next morning as Anjee’s life was fully supported by machines.

“They were trying to prepare us for disconnecting the equipment,” Ron said.

“Then they asked us what we wanted to do,” Deb said, “and I said, ‘the fat lady hasn’t even begun to sing.”’ Doctors decided to administer a brain wave test.

“If it’s flat, she’s an organ donor and we’ll say our goodbyes,” Deb said she was thinking at the time.

But the test showed activity. And further tests showed no swelling of the brain. “That was the first time we saw the doctors smile,” Deb said. “And boy, the nurses were excited.”

Days went by as Anjee breathed with the help of a ventilator. On the fifth day, she began breathing on her own. Then she began to wake up and look around. On the seventh day, Anjee went through withdrawal from the narcotics that had been administered to save her life.

Further tests showed near normal brain activity and a week after the accident the Uhlenkotts were told “we think you’re going to get your daughter back.”

Suddenly, said Deb, it was like her daughter’s life was on fast forward. Barely able to sit up at first, Anjee was soon standing, then taking steps, then beginning to talk again.

“Her first word was ‘mama,”’ Deb said. “Music to my ears.”

Anjee was transferred to St. Luke’s Rehabilitation Institute in Spokane, where she soon was speaking full sentences.

The Uhlenkotts spent Thanksgiving at the Ronald McDonald House in Spokane. They brought Anjee home Dec. 7.