Saved From Drowning : Boy Gaining After Brush With Death

Four days after being pulled unconscious and not breathing from a fountain at Mission San Juan Capistrano, 22-month-old Soren David Baird was perched on his mother’s lap in a hospital room, happy and smiling.

“He’s doing lots of things now,” said a relieved Joy Baird, 35, Soren’s mother, at Western Medical Center in Santa Ana.

“In fact, when the phone rang, he said, ‘Oh, oh!’ which is what he used to say at home when the phone rang. Doctors don’t think there will be any real problems,” she said.

Pulled From Water

On Friday, the 33-pound toddler with auburn hair was fished from a fountain with his face and parts of his body blue from lack of oxygen. There was no heartbeat, and his parents feared he could have been under water as long as 10 minutes.

Rushed to the Santa Ana trauma center, the boy clung to life in the intensive care unit for two days until his condition improved sufficiently by Sunday night for doctors to move him to the regular pediatric ward.

His parents, who prayed by his bedside, had been vacationing in Southern California from their home in Spokane, Wash., when the accident occurred.

While doctors have given the boy an excellent chance for a full recovery, they also have warned his mother and father, Forest, a teacher, that “it’s still early in the game.”

“Doctors said that as long as Soren’s progress is real steady, they feel encouraged. They believe his recovery could be 100%,” Joy Baird said in a telephone interview Monday evening.

For the Bairds--who have kept a prayer vigil with parents, relatives and friends--any small improvement Soren makes is viewed as a positive sign.

“It’s little things that we hope for. (Monday) morning, he couldn’t lift his head; but by the afternoon he could,” she said.

Also on Monday morning, Soren was given a ball, which had been one of his favorite toys. But he hardly seemed to recognize it. By evening, however, he was able to give it a good toss with a twinkle in his bright blue eyes, his mother said.

Brain Seizures

Soren remains on medication for brain seizures, but they are less frequent now. An electroencephalogram indicated that his brain waves were still “slightly irregular,” although doctors emphasized that this is common when the blood supply has been cut off to the brain for any period of time.

During the interview, Joy Baird explained that the family had flown from Spokane to Los Angeles, where they were joined by her parents from Phoenix to spend spring break vacationing in Southern California.

Forest Baird, 35, is a philosophy instructor at Whitworth College, a private, Christian liberal arts college in Spokane, she said. The family was on a tour from Anaheim en route to the San Diego Zoo when their bus stopped briefly at the mission in San Juan Capistrano.

“We had our daughters, ages 5 and 7, with us and we were feeding the pigeons. (Soren) just got away from us,” she said. “We said, ‘Where’s Soren?’ and we thought he had wandered off or someone had kidnaped him.”

By then, however, the 35-inch-tall toddler had tumbled into the fountain. David Cameron of Irvine, who apparently was visiting the mission at the time, saw the boy in trouble.

Cold Water Helped

“My mother screamed and rushed to a group of people, and David Cameron immediately jumped in and got him,” Joy Baird said Monday. “We weren’t sure if he bumped his head or not.”

The family was told later that two factors had improved Soren’s chances for survival: the cold water in the fountain and the fact that it was fresh water, not saltwater or chlorinated water.

Joy Baird said her family was grateful for prayers of strangers, as well as those of relatives in California, Washington and Arizona, but especially for the efforts of Soren’s rescuer.

“Since then, David Cameron has come to visit twice, and we’ve heard from supportive people in all three states,” she said.

She added that after the boy was pulled to safety by Cameron, an unidentified woman, who police believe was an off-duty nurse, began administering mouth-to-mouth-resuscitation. And paramedics who were dispatched just happened to be “two minutes away” in San Juan Capistrano picking up a pair of boots, she said.

“When they first pulled him out he looked dead. If you had told me then he would be alive today, I wouldn’t have believed it. He was blue and didn’t have a heartbeat,” Joy Baird said.

Rushed to Hospital

Paramedics rushed the boy first to Mission Community Hospital in Mission Viejo. He was then airlifted by helicopter to Western Medical Center.

The Bairds are staying at a nearby hotel to be close to Soren at the hospital. At least one relative is with the boy at any time.

Undaunted by what Joy Baird can now refer to as a “little interruption,” the couple plan to return someday and eventually take Soren to the San Diego Zoo.

“But I don’t think we’ll go back to the mission,” she said.