INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Elianna Grace sat in the back seat of the SUV, battling her second fever in three days, her mom flashed back to the coughing and vomiting
fit the preschooler had the previous weekend - and to a niggling fear about the girl's sudden illness.Elianna had spent April 14 playing in
her grandparents' pool in Bradenton, Florida
She blew a geyser of water at family members with a pool noodle
One of them tried to spray her back, but Elianna was already inhaling and got a mouth full of water.The preschooler coughed, vomited and
retched for the next few minutes, her mother, Lacey Grace, told The Washington Post, trying to expel a lung- and a stomachful of chlorinated
water.But half an hour later, Elianna was happily splashing in the pool
The next day, she seemed fine on a shopping trip with mommy
The crisis seemed averted.On Monday the girl's preschool called her parents
She'd have to go home and, per the facility's policy, stay out at least 24 hours
Elianna spent a day with her mother at the family's business, coloring quietly in a corner
On Wednesday, she was back at preschool with no ill effects.But the preschool called again that afternoon
The fever was back.This time, her mother took her straight to Urgent Care, but even then, Lacey Grace worried she was overreacting
She and her husband have two daughters - 4 and nearly 2
Fevered trips to the doctor are not unusual."There are so many times I have taken my kid to the doctor, saying I'm being a worried parent,
and they say it's a viral thing, give it a few days," Grace told The Post.But she had read about Frankie Delgado Jr., who died last summer
under similar circumstances
Frankie, also 4, inhaled a large amount of water while splashing at the Texas City Dike with his family
His family worried the symptoms that manifested a few days later were "dry drowning," an imprecise term to describe water trapped in the
respiratory system that can ultimately make it difficult for a person to breathe
But experts say it may have been a bacterial infection
Whatever the cause, the outcome was tragic: An otherwise healthy child, dead in a matter of days."I never would have correlated that fever
to the pool incident if I hadn't of read that story about Frankie," Grace said
"I was like, this is not going to happen to Elianna."Grace noticed worrying signs as she looked at her overheated daughter on the way to
And there were purple spots on the girl's skin as she was getting X-rayed."The doctor came out and said 'You have to find the nearest
emergency room,'" she recalled to The Post
"'You need to pick the closest one
Just go.'"At the more advanced facility, doctors gave Elianna's worried parents the prognosis: Their daughter had an uncommon but severe
bacterial infection in her lungs and was struggling to get enough oxygen into her bloodstream
It all started with the water she'd breathed in at the pool.The doctors said there was nothing they could do to remove the fluid - that had
At the moment, they had to fight the infection and the inflammation it was causing.More X-rays followed
And every five minutes, it seemed, someone in a white coat was holding a stethoscope to Elianna's chest.The scariest moment happened
sometime between Wednesday night and Thursday morning
Mother and daughter were snuggled in Elianna's hospital bed when doctors and nurses rushed in
Elianna's oxygen level had dipped to dangerous levels, according to a monitor clipped to her toe.Grace said the monitor's warning was the
only sign that something was wrong with the child sleeping in her arms.Her doctors "were saying things like 'This is why she's here
Thank God you brought her in
Nothing's going to happen to her with all these resources here.'"They were right, Grace said
Two days later, after a round of a strong antibiotic, the 4-year-old was able to breathe without an oxygen mask, her mother said
She stopped wheezing when she exhaled.Elianna took an abbreviated trip to the park on Monday and has an appointment for what her mom hopes
will be her last X-Ray on Wednesday.Initial news reports widely deemed Elianna's case "dry drowning" or "secondary drowning," even though
her parents say doctors told her the girl was fighting a secondary infection
A GoFundMe friends started to help the Graces pay for hospital costs details the full cause: chemical pneumonitis, aspiration pneumonia and
perihilar edema.Similar questions - a "dry drowning diagnosis" versus a quickly-spreading bacterial infection - came up in Frankie's case.He
and his family members went to the dike on Memorial Day weekend last year, and the 4-year-old splashed in the knee deep water
Shortly after they got home, he started vomiting and had diarrhea.On June 3, the boy told his parents that his shoulders hurt and laid down
for a nap."Out of nowhere, he just woke up," Frankie Delgado Jr
told Houston's ABC affiliate KTRK
"He said 'ahhh,' he took his last breath - and I didn't know what to do no more.""I walked in
I could see him lying there; they were still working on him," his mother, Tara Delgado, told CBS affiliate KHOU
"I'm screaming, 'Let me just touch my baby! Maybe he needs his mama's touch.' "Family members (and reporters who talked to them) initially
attributed his death to dry drowning, although others said his symptoms seemed similar to a bacterial infection.Recently, doctors have shied
away from the terms "dry drowning" and "secondary drowning," preferring to specify the circumstances of someone's death to improve
resuscitation treatments.In dry drowning, a person's larynx closes in an attempt to stop water from seeping into the respiratory system,
according to the Cleveland Clinic
But air can't get through, either, depriving the body of oxygen
In secondary drowning, water is trapped in the respiratory system
It causes the lungs to spasm, making it difficult for a person to catch a breath
The lungs can also get irritated and fill with fluid.Even if her daughter wasn't a victim of 'dry drowning,' the situation was still
One day, her 4-year-old was fine, coloring on what appeared to be an unnecessary sick day from preschool
Twenty-four hours later, doctors were telling her she couldn't breathe without an oxygen mask.But those doctors might not have been there in
time, Grace said, if she hadn't read Frankie Delgado's story, horrified
Now, the story of her daughter's sudden sickness is forever linked to Frankie's.So with her daughter on the mend, she reached out to
Frankie's mother, Tara Delgado, and other family members, to express her gratitude.Grace heard back this week."Frankie's sister has reached
out to me," Grace told The Post, relaying the message the woman sent:"Something with your story is making us cry
We do everything we can to get his story out there to prevent this from happening
We're glad to see it's making a difference.(This story has not been edited by staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
