A 5-year-old Texas girl saved her mother last week after she apparently went unconscious at a relative's swimming pool near Corpus Christi and slid underwater.
According to KIII-TV, the heroic effort of Allison Anderwald was caught on the relative's surveillance camera in Portland, Texas. Her mother, Tracy Anderwald, 34, was in the pool on March 18 when she believes she suffered a seizure and went unconscious.
"I don't know what happened but I went into a seizure and whenever I did, I dropped to the bottom of the pool and went completely unconscious," said Anderwald.
A determined Allison Anderwald, who was sitting at the edge of the pool when the incident happened, jumped into the water and after several tries got her mother to the shallow end,
KRIS-TV reported. There, the 5-year-old was able to get her mother's head above the water, then ran inside to get help.
"She was really heavy, and I could only get the top part of her out, and then her other daughters ran over and helped me get her out," Tracy Anderwald's sister, Tedra Hunt, 32, told KRIS-TV. "Allison was able to do that on her own. And so, it's a miracle."
Hunt told ABC News that emergency personnel soon took Tracy Anderwald to CHRISTUS Spohn Hospital Corpus Christi-Memorial. She reportedly left the hospital on Tuesday.
"The doctors explained to us that had Tracy been underwater any longer, she probably wouldn't be with us right now," Hunt said. "It is truly amazing that this little girl, who's actually also pretty small for her age, was able to save my sister."
Family members said that Allison Anderwald has been swimming since she was 2-and-a-half, and may have a lifeguard career in her future.
"She's our little mermaid and my little hero," Tracy Anderwald said of her daughter.
Allison's story inspired many on social media.
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