Jacksonville Toddler Makes Full Recovery After Pond Rescue

Hoke Reddish was playing with toy cars in his family's den when he quietly slipped through a door he'd never been able to open before. Less than 10 minutes later, his mother pulled him unconscious from a pond on their Jacksonville property, beginning a rescue that doctors are calling a complete miracle.

Katie Reddish said she felt something was off when she couldn't hear her son playing. She sent her daughter to check a door at the end of the house, the same door Hoke had recently learned to open after a growth spurt.

The door stood wide open. The family scattered across their property searching for the 2-year-old.

Katie's 9-year-old son found Hoke first. His scream from near the pond sent Katie running to the water, where she found her youngest child floating unconscious in the deeper section.

"He wasn't even blinking," Katie said. "There was nothing."

Katie dove in and pulled Hoke toward shore, but struggled to lift him out. Her 11-year-old daughter grabbed his arms and helped pull him onto land while the other children called 911.

Katie started CPR immediately, relying on training she'd received years earlier. She performed compressions and rescue breaths as water came out of Hoke's mouth.

An off-duty Jacksonville Sheriff's Office officer heard the 911 call and responded quickly, finding a pulse. Jacksonville Fire and Rescue crews arrived minutes later and rushed Hoke to the hospital, where he began crying in the ambulance.

Doctors treated him for hypothermia and placed him on oxygen. Tests showed his lungs were clear, and a CT scan revealed no brain damage despite the drowning incident.

After just two days at Wolfson Children's Hospital, doctors sent Hoke home with a clean bill of health.

Sunny's Take

Katie now calls her son "100% back to himself" and "a complete miracle." He's running around wild again, but their home looks very different now.

The family installed heavy-duty deadbolts on all doors, added door chimes, and built a fence across the pond. Hoke is taking swim lessons, and Katie plans to stay current on CPR training.

"You can't be too safe," Katie said. "Fence the water. Lock the doors. Learn CPR."

What started as an ordinary day playing with toy cars became a terrifying race against time. But thanks to a mother's intuition, her CPR skills, quick-thinking siblings, and fast emergency response, Hoke gets to grow up and tell this story himself someday.

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