Jackson Gleason, 9, wanted to try swimming in the pool at his father’s Vancouver apartment complex without his life jacket on Thursday evening.
“He was trying to be a big kid,” his mother’s sister, Stephanie Felion, said.
Felion said Jackson’s stepmother, who had been watching him and his half-brother at the pool, had turned away for a moment to handle something when she looked back and saw Jackson’s life jacket by the pool.
“I guess for the last couple of days before that, he kept asking if he could take his life jacket off, and she said no, because he’s not a very good swimmer,” Felion said.
Jackson was at the bottom of the pool.
When he was pulled out, he had no pulse, Felion said. Jackson’s stepmother and a neighbor started performing CPR.
“According to the doctors, if they wouldn’t have done that, he wouldn’t even be back with us,” Felion said.
Paramedics arrived at the Market Place Apartments around 7:30 that evening, and were able to restore his heartbeat. They took Jackson to PeaceHealth Southwest Medical Center, and he was transferred to Randall Children’s Hospital in Portland, where he’s been since.
Jackson lives in Sherwood, Ore., with his mother, but the boy was in Vancouver visiting his father, Felion said.
Felion has been at the hospital, with the rest of the family, almost round-the-clock since Thursday.
“Everybody’s pretty devastated at the moment. It’s been a waiting game, and we don’t know what to expect,” Felion said. “There’s times when things change within an hour.”
Jackson showed some improvement Tuesday, but he’s dealing with damage to multiple organs. He’s on a ventilator for the damage to his lungs, and his kidneys have failed, she said. At one point, he had a heart attack.
Saturday seemed to go well, then he endured a rough night, she said. Doctors and the family thought things were improving the next morning, but within an hour or two, his oxygen levels dropped and his damaged kidneys acted up. Putting him on dialysis hasn’t been ruled out.
Felion said doctors are far from having much in the way of a prognosis, but whatever happens, Jackson will face a long recovery. Also unclear is the extent of any possible brain damage.
“We’re optimistic that he’s going to pull through,” she said. “They’re not exactly sure what type of brain capacity he’s going to have. There’s signs that he’s responding, and that he’s in there.”
Jackson’s mother works at Providence Health & Services, and her co-workers took up a collection to help with the family’s expenses, Felion said.
With mom and dad being unable able to work for some time, and child care for the other children in the family to arrange, Felion also set up an online fundraising account at YouCaring.com to help out. The account is under #PrayforJACKSON.
“Based on this morning’s meeting with the doctors, this is going to be a very long, drawn-out thing,” she said Tuesday. “Who knows how long they’re going to be out of work.”
