"It's a miracle," parents save daughters from drowning at Edmond home
EDMOND, Okla. (KFOR) - The McKnights are still reeling after they almost lost their two young girls when they nearly drowned last Friday at an Edmond home.
The McKnight's have three young daughters with one on the way.
"We have Zoey who is six, Calliana who is four, Eleanor who is almost two, and one on the way," said Caitlyn McKnight.
The family lives in Shawnee, Kansas but had been visiting Jacob's sister in the Edmond neighborhood of Oak Tree.
It was a sunny and beautiful Friday on May 3rd when the two oldest Zoey and Calliana were playing in the pool outside.
"They had their floaties on, they were completely safe," said Jacob. "What's astounding is how could anything go wrong?"
But it did, the family said that Jacob's brother-in-law was watching them and then went inside for a split second when Jacob returned home from a business meeting.
"Caitlyn walks in with the one-year-old following her because kids wander," said Jacob. "Those girls had been out there in the pool for two-and-a-half, maybe three hours already, and having a great time, flotation devices and everything on them."
But, Jacob said it was those two minutes that either Caitlyn or the brother-in-law came inside, that mattered.
"She went back outside and couldn't find the girls and came back inside and said, 'Hey, have you seen the girls? And suddenly we both had the most terrifying feeling, so I ran upstairs," said Jacob.
Instantly Jacob and his wife were searching everywhere frantically. They ran around the inside of the home, outside the home, and all around the backyard but couldn't find them.
"I look down into the pool and say, there are my two daughters. It's still tough to say that," said Jacob. "So I jump in, get the youngest one, and pull her up."
Caitlyn, while holding back her one-year-old, started frantically doing CPR on her but she wasn't breathing.
"Then my sister started trying to help out but she couldn't see anything. I saw my oldest there at the bottom," said Jacob.
He went under several times to try and pull her up so he could begin CPR on her but couldn't.
"At one point, and I could be wrong but I heard my sister tell me 'too heavy' and my heart just dropped. I thought that was the end of my child," said Jacob.
Within three minutes Jacob had run throughout the house, around the back and front yard, and then dove into the pool, he was exhausted. But with it being a possible miracle, he was able to pull her up and start CPR.
"God knows how long we're just sitting there beating on these poor little girl's chest cavities. There's got to be a lot of damage," said Jacob.
Eventually, a breath comes out of her and Jacob has some sort of relief. EMSA arrived just then and they all rushed to OU Children's Hospital, the girls were put on a machine that pumped their hearts and kept them alive, ECMO.
"Zoey was on it for two days and Cali was on it for five," said Jacob.
During those days, the two said that it was unbelievable how many people prayed for them. At one random point, two different pastors from different places happened to show up one night to pray for them.
"It was like a miracle," said Jacob.
Caitlyn cried while her husband talked about how he believed God was there the whole time helping them through it.
"I feel that there was some divine intervention with this. God prepared us for this completely my whole life," said Jacob.
"The Bible tells us that God loves us more than we could ever comprehend or imagine how much he is there for us and I have been so overwhelmed in the best possible way with the people that he has sent to support us and support our girls," said Caitlyn.
"I mean, I believe it was a miracle and believing for a complete recovery," said Jacob.
The two, while extremely strong to sit down with KFOR a week after the incident, wanted to take the moment to warn other parents ahead of Mother's Day weekend.
"I will tell you what we will do after having nearly lost our children for a fraction of a time, we lost them. We will never, ever, ever allow the girls to be in a position of danger without having a forward plan for 100%. Eyes on. We will also make sure that all safety measures are accounted for because it's going to echo into more than just pool safety, right, if we go camping, whatever. We will always have a plan."
They also urged parents to learn the life-saving measures of CPR no matter what. They said that is one of the many reasons they are able to hug their two daughters today.
The last thing they want to deal with are hospital bills, to help out the McKnights, there is a GoFundMe set up and you can find it by clicking here.