A developmentally-delayed toddler who could only communicate with gestures was suddenly able to speak after surviving a near drowning.

KOMO-TV is reporting on Catalina Ackers, 2, of Seattle, who slipped out of her family home and into a neighborhood retention pond before anyone noticed she was missing. Catalina’s mother, Natalie Holiday, said she went upstairs for just a minute and immediately sensed something was wrong when she came back downstairs and couldn’t find her daughter.

She immediately called 911 and sent the family outside to search for Catalina.

It was her 12 year-old son, Ethan, who spotted his little sister in the pond.

“He saw her pink shirt and she was floating face down in the water,” Holiday told KOMO.

Ethan dove into the pond, grabbed Catalina and carried her to the sidewalk above the pond. He was met there by a neighbor, Stephen Schwab, who started doing CPR at once.

“She was limp and her eyes closed,” Schwab said.

There was no pulse at first. He tried chest compressions, then mouth-to-mouth, and was only able to bring about a faint pulse.

By then police had arrived and he took over. Catalina suddenly regained consciousness, began throwing up water and crying.

Only then did Natalie think her baby girl would survive.

But Catalina did more than just survive – much more.

When do infants start talking? Your baby learns to talk during his first two years of life. Long before he utters his first word, he’s learning the rules of language and how adults use it to communicate. He’ll begin by using his tongue, lips, palate, and any emerging teeth to make sounds (cries at first, then “ooh’s” and “ahh’s” in the first month or two, and babbling shortly thereafter). Soon those sounds will become real words – “mama” and “dada” may slip out and bring tears to your eyes as early as 6 months.

The moment she awoke from sedation, Catalina began to speak, something she had never done before. Developmentally delayed and suffering from motor skill challenges, the child was only able to communicate with gestures.

But now she was suddenly speaking.

“She is speaking clear language, words. So something clicked, her face is the same, but as her mother – she is a different child,” Natalie said.

The first word she uttered was “mommy” and since then, she hasn’t stopped talking.

Even though no one knows what triggered her sudden ability to speak, Holiday says it doesn’t matter.

“It’s just an amazing feeling to have your daughter say mommy.”

Catalina is now out of the hospital and home with her family. They are planning a meeting to thank their neighbor and the Seattle Police officer who saved her life.

The moral of this story could not be more obvious – miracles do happen – sometimes in spades!

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