Toddler stuns doctors with ‘miracle’ recovery after drowning

A TODDLER whose heart stopped beating for 12 minutes after drowning in a pool has stunned doctors with a “miracle” recovery.

Alise Nipper showed no signs of life when she was pulled from a swimming pool in the US state of Missouri on July 29.

Her determined mother Jamie Nipper performed CPR for 12 minutes until the little girl’s heart began to beat again.

Alise was rushed to hospital with serious lung and body trauma. Doctors feared her brain tissue was damaged from oxygen deprivation.

But despite her injuries, Alise defied expectations by not only making a full recovery, but returning to the pool within two months of the near-fatal accident.

“Her brain has gotten through it, her lungs recovered and as near as we can tell she’s back to functioning as high level a three-year-old can,” Dr Jeremy Garrett from Cardinal Glennon Children’s Hospital in St. Louis told KFVS.

“For her brain to come through this and be as functional as possible is astounding. Prayer and luck and divine intervention were the key factors.”

Alise was enjoying a pool party with friends when she took her life jacket off and disappeared from her mother’s side.

“I did a pool check, did not see her. I decided to do a second pool check and saw her foot under a raft. Something took over me,” Ms Nipper said.

“I remember jumping across the pool, coming up and shouting, ‘Dial 911.’ I was praying while I grabbed her that she would start coughing as if she’d just fallen in, but when I brought her up from the water, it was evident she was without life. She was blue.”

Ms Nipper and her friend, a nurse, performed CPR on Alise until her pulse returned.

“She all of the sudden had colour and pink lips,” Ms Nipper recalled. “Her heart started and she started breathing, it was strong loud breaths.”

Alise’s family feared the worst. But after six days in hospital, the little girl rapidly improved.

Not only did she talk after the ventilator was removed, she sang. Two weeks later, she was back at home.

“The day we left it was surreal. I felt like I can’t believe we lived through this,” Ms Nipper said.

Miracle toddler survives drowning

Ms Nipper and her husband Craig believe prayer brought their little girl back to life.

“I look at her and think, how amazing, how awesome is our God,” Ms Nipper said. “[We are] so blessed.”

Ms Nipper is now on a mission to share the story of her daughter’s recovery and encourage everyone to become CPR certified.