Mother of drowned Cork boy calls for government-funded preschool swimming lessons

The mother of a three-year-old Cork boy who drowned while on holiday in Spain last August has told of her anguish at the toddler’s death, and is now campaigning for government-funded swimming lessons for preschool children.

Avery James Greene was on the Costa Blanca in Spain when, unbeknownst to his family, he left their apartment on the morning of August 12, 2019, and went to the pool.

A neighbour thought the toddler was a doll in the pool until Avery’s mother Amanda Cambridge came searching for him.

Now Ms Cambridge has spoken about her son’s death for the first time, and how she believes toddlers need swimming lessons. Tragically, Avery had been booked in for lessons after the tragic holiday. with Ms Cambridge’s friend Emer Barry.

“Avery loved water, but when he saw water he only saw the laughter, the fun, the ball-playing, the jumping in and out. No fear, even though you would try to teach him water is dangerous,” Ms Cambridge told Neil Prendiville on Red FM.

“I think the armbands gave me a false sense of reassurance of protection. He never left the apartment without his armbands. He was never around the pool without his armbands. I thought that that was okay because I would have always been there,” she said.

She emotionally recalled the day of her son’s death.

“We got up and we were tidying up because my husband was arriving that morning. There was myself, my two girls and my dad. We had been out the night before with family friends. We'd gone for a lovely dinner, we'd a great night and got up the next morning. We knew Daddy was coming on the plane. We were tidying up and Avery asked for his bottle and he wanted to watch Paw Patrol.

“So I lay him on the couch with his blankies and his bottles and tucked him in, kissed him and went off about tidying, went to the bathroom, made sure that was clean, went to the bedroom, and came back and all that was left on the couch was a bottle and two blankets.

“I didn't panic because it didn't even pop into my head that he had left. You know, I checked the bedroom and I checked the bathroom and I just asked "Avery, where are you?" I thought he was hiding until I went outside.

“Still no panic until the man next door said "did I hear right?" and I said, "Yeah, Avery is missing". He said, "Oh my god, there's a baby in the pool". And I knew straight away. I ran. I just ran and turned the corner, and I could see him. I could see him lying there. But I just couldn't get to him fast enough. He was so close, but he was so far away. That was the longest run I ever had in my life. He was out of the water at that stage. I could hear my feet pumping off the floor. I could hear myself screaming his name and got down there.

“Thankfully there was a lady staying there, she was from Sweden, I think she was a paramedic and she was performing CPR on him. By the time I got down there and just fell next to him and was shaking his leg and opening his hands and saying “Avery it's time to wake up now, you're going to be fine, games are over”, never thinking that the outcome that we did have 24 hours later, that he was gone.

“It turned into absolute mayhem. We lived in a gated community, there were no barriers around the pool. There was no lifeguard. And the man on the opposite side of the apartment had been out with his son, his son was only 17 and he pulled him out of the pool. There were 12 if not 15 paramedics rushed in and worked on him, there were helicopters, ambulance, there was just people everywhere.

“I remember one man came out of his apartment, had a cup of coffee in his hand and just stood at the end of the pool watching, drinking his cup of coffee. And I just got so cross that I actually made a run for him. I was screaming at him “this isn't a spectator sport, that's my child”. I think the police had arrived and they saw how upset I was and they moved, everybody went into their apartments.

“Robin and Lucia [Ms Cambridge’s other children] were asleep. I said to somebody go off to that apartment and do not let them come down here. Because it's not something that they need to see, they were eight and six at the time. Eric [Ms Cambridge’s husband] was in the air at the time, we couldn't contact him. So in the meantime, I was trying to get on to people to organise to pick him up from the airport. We have a good friend over there, Ann, who would drop us to the airport and bring us back. She met him at the airport and he actually got to the hospital before I did because Avery was airlifted from the pool, they had to land on the beach.

“I obviously couldn't go in the helicopter with him so my friend, Leanne and myself drove, and the airport was closer to the hospital.

“I didn't even know what had happened or how it had happened. I just kept saying, "He went into the pool, he went into the pool". We just walked the corridors for hours and hours and all they said was "We need time, he needs time. He is a very sick little boy. We need time." And then you had the language barrier. There was one nurse that could speak English. Everybody else spoke Spanish and they were lovely and were really helpful, but that's all they said, "We need time, we need time".

“On the drive up myself and Leanne are talking about it and she said, "It's good, they found a pulse". But I said, “Leanne he has been without oxygen”. I don't know if I do get him back what quality life he's going to have and I prayed to God, Jesus, I asked God take me, give him back, take me instead.

“I prayed to my mom, give him back. I just want him here. And they tried everything. He only spent a few hours there. We went in and we saw him and it looked like he was sleeping. His hair was perfect and he was already red and rosy, and there wasn't a mark on him. We played Paw Patrol. We put Paw Patrol on our phones and tried to encourage him to wake up. I and Eric played Paw Patrol and put it up to his ear and were rubbing his head and kissed every finger and every toe and every eyelash and I counted 48 freckles on his nose. So we just sat there and we just had to wait. He was perfect. He looked perfect.

“Myself and Eric were brought into a room, and the doctor had children herself, and she was just absolutely heartbroken. She was crying telling us she said, "There's nothing... he's gone. He's gone."

“Then they brought up organ donation and myself and Eric didn't have to bat an eyelid. Because in the corridor that Avery was on, he was in the last room, so we would have to pass other rooms with other little babies, other little children and they had been there longer than him. They looked sicker than him. We just thought if any part of Avery can save one of those children, let's do it, we didn't hesitate. We said, yeah take what you can.”

It took ten days to bring Avery’s body home, with the assistance of the Kevin Bell Repatriation Trust. Ms Cambridge said he was hurt by comments suggesting she should have kept a closer eye on her son.

“ I blame myself for what happened because I was cleaning, I did turn my back on him and I have so much regret I have so much "what if?"

“If I had done this, if I didn't care that the shower was squeaky clean if I didn't care that the beds were made. I do have a lot of regret and I carry enough blame for everybody. Because it was me that was there, it was my watch. He was my child. And I suppose any parent would carry some portion of blame.

“I'll carry that forever. Every day. Every morning, every night. I don't get to kiss my son goodnight anymore. I get to blow a kiss to a box of ashes that's in my bedroom. I don't get to hold his hand, I get to look at pictures. I have memories of that day, memories of looking at him in the hospital bed and him looking like he was just asleep. He was warm and he was fresh and then I have the memories of him not being fresh and him being cold and him lying on a slab.

“If I didn't have two other children I think I'd probably be next to him. That's how strongly I feel about this, children learning to swim. He might have had a chance if he had the skills, like the rollover and float.

“The day he was born, I put a post up; "I'm complete". He absolutely completed my family. And when he died I suppose a part of me died as well,” she said.

Ms Barry, a swimming instructor with the Turtle Tots and close friend of Ms Cambridge’s, has contacted the Department of Education to campaign for nationwide swimming lessons for toddlers.

“Myself and Amanda had had a lengthy conversation just prior to their departure on holidays, that as soon as they were home Avery had to start swimming. It was a good age to start and I was really looking forward to it.

“Basically the Turtle Tots are teaching life-saving skills. At the toddler pool, one of the first skills we teach is how to enter a pool first of all. That would be sitting poolside, putting your hands across your lap, over onto the wall and turning over, wiggling, wiggling, wiggling so that you're holding on to the pool. That's how you teach a toddler how to enter a pool safely rather than jumping straight in.

“We install confidence into children and toddlers that if they do make the jump into the pool, to kick, kick, kick, kick, kick and look for the wall,” she said.

Ms Barru was also on holiday when she learned of Avery’s death.

“I will never forget the pain and the hurt. I do not, ever, ever want to see a family go through this again,” she said.

“If you look at the statistics, and if you look at Emmy [Sophia Eckert, who drowned last August], at Avery, and that beautiful little boy back in 2017 in the Quality Hotel in Youghal, Ronan Kennedy. These kids were between ages three and five.

“It's impossible to have all precautions at all times, to cover all measures. The measure that we can cover is to get our kids swimming as early as possible and to have intervention at preschool level, that we're teaching our preschool kids these life skills. If they fall to give them confidence in water to kick, kick, kick to the wall.

“I'm not saying that it's going to save their life, but it's giving them a chance. Had Avery had even a term with me prior to his death it could have given him a chance,” she said.

Ms Cambridge said her experience has prompted her to raise awareness of the importance of early swimming lessons for children.

“If I have to tell my story 100 times over just to get maybe one parent, one family into the water, to teach their children how to respect water, the skills that they need if they get into difficulty, if my family can save one other family that's all we want. The job is done.”