Mother's, grandmother's love give comfort, care, hope to baby's life
By Nancy Needham nancy@theacorn.com

SHARING UNCONDITIONAL LOVE- From left, Moira Ireland; her mother, Divina De Los Santos; Moira's mother-in-law, Barb Ireland, and baby Sarah.

The day her baby girl fell into a swimming pool and nearly drowned changed Moira Ireland's life forever. And from that day forward her mother and mother-in-law have performed the work of angels.

On Sept. 18 last year, as Ireland was driving home from her work at a credit union in Westlake Village, she was thinking about what her 17monthold daughter, Sarah, needed for an upcoming photography session. The toddler's grandpa would soon be celebrating a birthday, and pictures of the family's only grandchild would make a great gift.

Sarah had been born two months prematurely, weighing only 3 pounds, 10 ounces. She'd overcome a lot and was now caught up to others her age developmentally. She learned to walk at 14 months and started running a week later. She spoke phrases and liked to brush her own hair and carry a purse. Ireland, 22, and her husband Michael, 21, had captured it all on video.

The young family lives with Michael's parents, Barb and Jeff Ireland, in the Sunset Hills area of Thousand Oaks. On that day last September, the family had ordered pizza and given Sarah a milkshake to drink. The little girl was walking around in the kitchen with everyone else- then she was gone, Moira Ireland said.

Michael ran upstairs, downstairs, all around the house looking for his daughter. Somehow the tiny child had made her way out to the backyard into the swimming pool. Michael found her there unconscious and he began CPR. Within two minutes the police arrived. An ambulance soon followed.

In her car at Hillcrest Drive and Erbes Road, Moira Ireland called home on her cellphone to talk to her husband about the photography session. When she learned the family was rushing Sarah to the hospital, Moira turned down Janss Road and drove directly to Los Robles Hospital.

The scene she found at the hospital terrified her further. Firefighters, police officers and nurses were gathered together crying, she recalled.

"When you see grown men who are used to seeing difficult situations crying, I knew they were going to tell me the worst thing I could ever hear," Moira said.

They couldn't get a regular heartbeat from Sarah and she needed a ventilator to breathe. It was estimated she'd been without oxygen long enough that if she survived- which was unlikely- she'd be severely brain damaged.

At the hospital Moira's mother, Divina De Los Santos, comforted her distraught daughter.

"Until my mother put her arms around me, I didn't think I could survive," Moira said.

Sarah was flown to UCLA Medical Center's pediatric care facility. After a few weeks the family decided to take Sarah off the ventilator even though they were told it was unlikely she could breathe on her own, the young mother said.

"It was a miracle. She did breathe on her own, but she still had all the brain damage they said she would have," Moira said.

Sarah must be fed through a tube that goes directly into her stomach. Her mother said she's not sure if her daughter, who's described as having the lowest level of awareness, can see.

"She doesn't look at you," Moira Ireland said.

Now, because her brain damage has made her nerves very sensitive, she screams when her hair is brushed. Only the gentle touch of her grandmother, Barb Ireland, prevents the shrieking when her hair is tended to.

"My mother-in-law stopped working as an administrative assistant the day of the accident," Moira said.

Sarah no longer can walk or talk. She can't roll over or sit up by herself, her mother said. No one knows what her prognosis is. She could fully recover or only get a little bit better, her mother said.

Now Barb Ireland takes care of Sarah every day while her son, Michael, goes to Moorpark College with hopes of someday becoming a doctor. Moira is going to school to become a nurse.

"My motherinlaw takes Sarah to her doctor's appointments an hour away in Santa Monica. She's here when the therapists come. Three times a day she gives Sarah range of motion and physical therapy. She feeds her through a tube. She takes her everywhere she goes, because you can't just call a babysitter to come over for Sarah- her care is too complicated," Moira said.

Moira's mother takes Sarah for overnight visits and on outings in public.

"My mom wants to give my husband and me time together so our marriage can stay strong," Moira said.

"I don't think I could make it without my mom and my mother-in-law," Moira said. "My mother has been a pillar of hope; she reminds me that it is in God's hands.

"My mother-in-law joyfully gives so much time for Sarah's special care, and she's always there for me. I don't know where we would be without our family."