'It was the worst day of my life, and the best day of my life'; Mother says faith saved her son
CARRIER MILLS - In a flash, little Levi Vickers went from happily playing on a playset to being accidentally hanged, but his mother credits God for saving Levi's life.
"It was my worst nightmare," Olivia Vickers, her voice still hoarse after the Saturday encounter, said in a telephone interview Monday.
Vickers, who with her husband Doug lives between Carrier Mills and Stonefort, said she was taking a break with 3-year-old Levi and his older brother Gabe after working all day. Levi and Gabe were playing on the playset with a tunnel slide in the yard and Olivia said she was sitting on the patio just 10 feet away.
"They were running around, having fun, and Levi picked up a spool of troutline, or what some people call trotline. He held it up on his shoulder like he was a little man and climbed up with his brother," she said. "A couple of minutes later, the 5-year-old goes down the slide and screams. At first, I was thinking they were being crazy little boys trying to get attention. When he screamed a second time, though, I got up and ran over. He had slid down and was tangled in the cord. His little brother was suspended with the cord tied around his neck, intertwined three or four times. His face was purple, his tongue was hanging out. It was absolutely the most horrid thing, seeing my own child like that."
The tunnel slide had obscured Olivia's vision when Levi went down it.
Olivia said the cord was so tight around Levi's neck she couldn't get a finger under it to get some slack to relieve the pressure. She yelled at Gabe to go in and get his older sisters and a pair of scissors.
"I just said out loud, 'God, I know he belongs to you, but I'm not ready for you to take him,'" Olivia said, recalling the harrowing incident.
With the scissors in hand, Olivia cut four or five strands of cord tightly wrapping Levi's neck, freeing him, and laid him on the ground. In the meantime, she had instructed Lilia, one of the boys' sisters, to call 911.
"He was gone, not breathing," Olivia said, her voice overcome with emotion at her recollection. "I leaned over and started breathing into him doing CPR, and after about three or four compressions, he sucked in a big breath. We were all laying hands on him and praying. We're all Christians, and I know that God saved my son."
She also said that while she normally panics in a stressful situation, she was able to react more calmly than she would have thought possible.
"I know that was God, too," she said.
She credits Saline County Sheriff's Office Dispatcher Aundria Murphy with providing clear directions during the ordeal, and first responders and Carrier Mills firefighters with almost immediate help.
"Aundria immediately got my attention and told me not to move him, to hold him still, and that first responders were on the way," Olivia said. "They got here right away."
She said she later learned that firefighters and first responders were at a meeting at the Carrier Mills Fire Department close by, making the response time very short.
Levi would be transferred by ambulance and then by Life Flight air ambulance to Deaconess Hospital in Evansville. She said it was uncertain at that time whether he would have any serious damage.
"As he was being loaded into the ambulance, I had to give him a little kiss. I told him, 'I love you' and he looked over at me and said, 'I love you too,'" Olivia said.
After numerous CT scans, X-rays and other diagnostic testing was done, doctors said Levi was OK. Olivia and her family were thankful, but also stunned with the good news.
"I just fully 100 percent know God intervened, because my son was dead. For him to be no-pulse dead on Saturday and come home yesterday," she said, her voice trailing off. "He's 100 percent everything, except for the big scrape he has from the rope. Saturday was the worst day of my life, and the best day of my life."