By Elena Matyas

On July 2, we were on a walk in the Arroyo with close family who traveled across the country to mourn Roxie’s death. My mother-in-law became faint. Dehydration, jet lag, heartache.

Doug & I found ourselves back in the Huntington ER, steps away from the trauma room where Roxie’s heart was jump-started four days earlier. Nurses, doctors and staff looked at us with disbelief that we were back. They offered warm hugs, shared tears and extended what felt like VIP treatment for Doug’s mom. They were likely still bruised after enduring our desperate squeezes and pleadings while watching desperate and vain efforts to bring our Roxie back.

On the morning Roxie drowned, we received a panicked call from the Summerkids’ assistant director and were told to go directly to Huntington Hospital, without further detail. We knew something bad had happened. As we waited at the traffic light at California & Fairmount, Roxie’s ambulance approached from Fair Oaks, followed by a motorcade of 4, 5 maybe 6 or more emergency vehicles.

Our hearts sank.

The trembling of our bodies intensified. When the ambulance parked, we ran to it and watched the team of paramedics surrounding Roxie’s lifeless body, still in her bright pink bathing suit bottom, working effortlessly to bring her back. Doug told me I let out a shriek evident of a mother who knows her baby is gone. I don’t remember doing so.

We were immediately approached by hospital staff, comforting us and preparing us for what we were going to see done to our girl. They were kind, compassionate, understanding and professional, but also honest. False hopes were not extended. When I asked the treating doctor why Roxie’s eyes were half open and why her pupils were dilated, in denial of her brain-dead state, she offered a straightforward answer with grace and benevolence.

Thank you LAFD Squad 11, CARE ambulance team, Altadena PD, and all of the amazing staff, nurses and doctors at Huntington. We witnessed your herculean efforts to bring our baby back and will always remember how hard you worked to save a precious life.

Since her birth at Huntington, Roxie has spent a fair amount of time in the ER – a 3 inch split in her forehead after a tumble in a furniture store, 13 stitches in her chin after a fall from a kitchen stool, a 106+ fever due to pneumonia.

After receiving my exasperated phone calls describing yet another trip to the ER, my parents and sisters would remind me in jest that Roxie broke the previous family record set by her mother for annual visits to the ER, as attested to by the relief map of stitches in my very own forehead.

Please let Roxie’s visit to the ER on June 28th be the last visit by a child who has left the earth due to a preventable drowning death.