When we are a parent, we always want whats best for our children. We do what we can to keep them safe but sometimes, we need to let them have some freedom as well. It isn’t that we just let them go and not worry. In fact, quite the opposite is true. In the end, however, we want our children to grow up to make wise decisions but sometimes, we realize they are going to err. That is when we need to be the best parent we can be. We overcome the stress and move on. That was the case with this mother, who has a most terrifying experience:
This past Saturday night my 15 year old daughter asked me to sleep at a friends house and go to the movies. I said yes. She has always been very good about communicating with me and checking in with me. But her plans changed that night and the series of events that followed are nothing that any family should have to experience….I received a fb message at 100am saying someone had received a phone call saying that my daughter Ryleigh Payton was somewhere passed out. Immediately my heart sank and I tried to call her phone repeatedly and of course there was no answer. I questioned who, where, when, why’s…and received no answer back because that girl was already in route of finding the girl who called her and my daughter, picked them up and brought them to my driveway.
As I opened the car door to see my daughter, lifeless and foaming at the mouth covered in vomit 911 was on their way. Ambulance arrived on seen and she was unresponsive, since we didn’t have many details except she had been drinking vodka we weren’t sure if she was given or taken anything else so she was given Narcane 4 time only to still fall unresponsive. Transported to Heywood where there was no change we were told my daughters airway was not strong enough and she would need to be interbated and transferred immediately to Umass. While arriving there the doctors informed us my daughter was No longer breathing on her own at all. I suffered 14 long hours pleading and begging for my daughters life, experiencing flashbacks from the moment she was born, to her first smile and giggle, the first time she said Mumma, her first step, her 1st birthday, her first day of school, her first friendship,sleepover, sickness, her graduation of middle school, our private mother daughter moments, laughing, joking, running, snuggling and so forth, I was thinking of her siblings and what losing her would do to them and the rest of her family and all of the people that love her.
My daughter was with a group of teens, I’m sure as the started to notice some signs that Ryleigh was not okay panic started to set in, they thought they would get in trouble if they tried to get help so they left her there….only 1 girl who was not even her friend but an acquaintance stayed with her, trying to find a way to get my information and she succeeded. She didn’t care about getting in trouble herself, she wanted to get her the help she so desperately needed, the other kids who left her I’m sure we’re scared and didn’t realize the severity of her condition at the time so I’m sharing our experience so that EVERY TEEN who may come to be in this situation knows….you will NOT get in trouble for getting someone help!!!! You have the ability to SAVE a precious life!!!!! So please reach out and get help no matter what the circumstances. That one girl SAVED my daughters life by contacting someone who could get ahold of me and if it were not for her the reality of it is I would be burying my daughter this week. PARENTS share this with your children so they see the dangers of under aged drinking and what it can do!!! After 14 hours my beautiful daughter finally by the grace of God opened her big beautiful green eyes to see her Mumma and asked for her sister Courtney Ackles and we are on our way to a long recovery due to breathing issues, bodily injury from her repeatedly falling while intoxicated, lacerations to her eye, and the worry she doesn’t develop a pneumonia from vomit being in her lungs, so we are not fully out of the woods yet, but she is home,safe and as comfortable as she can be right now.
Thank you to all who have stood by my family in this time, saying prayers, helping my other kids and husband while I was at the hospital, we are blessed. Please share this to prevent another child from going through this and another parent to endure what I have. My 92lb child had a 2.8 blood alcohol level from drinking Ciroc the typical Vodka of choice among young teens these days. Don’t ever think this couldn’t happen to you because it is very real and it’s everywhere!!! Our pictures of her may be disturbing to some but our hopes are in sharing our pain we may be able to PREVENT AND SAVE ANOTHER CHILD!!! SHARE OUR STORY!!!
Thankfully, this young woman was able to return home. But it’s a situation that we see posted on social media, from parents around the country, time and time again. Help spread the word – if it prevents even one person from repeating this, then it’s worth it.