Emma Shelton

Emma Victoria Shelton

July 8 2003 - May 8 2005

Age: 22 months old 

On May 8 2005, Emma's family were celebrating Mother's Day inside their Florida home. Emma had been out on the patio with the family, splashing in the hot tub with her older cousins, playing, and having fun. There was a large ice bucket on the patio for the drinks and she was having a blast eating ice and throwing it into the hot tub. At one point everyone got up and went into the house. She was in the front room playing with toys with her older cousins while her mom was in the dining room opening Mothers day gifts.

It was only a few minutes later that her mother noticed she wasn't in the front room anymore. She asked where Emma was and no one knew. She checked the patio first, and there she was - floating facedown in the hot tub. Emma's mother screamed and jumped in to grab her then handed her out to Emma's dad. Someone called 911 while Emma's parents and uncle performed CPR.

A police officer showed up after a few long agonizing minutes and took over CPR. The ambulance was just minutes behind. When the ambulance arrived, all of them started to cut off her clothes. After arriving at the hospital, they had got a heartbeat back. But it was to no avail. She had 3 chest tubes to try to help her lungs, a ventilator was breathing for her.

Emma was having small siezures periodically. The nuerologist performed his tests and you could see his face get more grave with each test. She had a heart beat but Emma wasn't there anymore. Her brain had been deprived of oxygen for too long. Even if they could get her heart to cooperate and stay beating she would never wake up. Her heartbroken family had to make the decision when her heart arrested again to let her go.