Indiana mother speaks out about son's near-drowning to keep other kids safe

TIPTON, Ind. -- An Indiana mother is speaking out about her 5-year-old son's near-drowning to raise awareness about pool safety during the height of the summer swimming season.

Maribeth Leeson said she was at a pool full of people earlier this month when she looked over and saw a child under the water.

"I thought, 'Oh that's just a kid holding their breath,' and then I said, 'Is that Adam?'" she said in an interview.

To her horror, she realized that her son Adam had begun to drown.

"A million thoughts were flying through my head as I stumbled around, not knowing what I was doing, screaming," she recounted in a Facebook post. "I ran to him and watched and cried and talked to him as my friend tirelessly and relentlessly continued CPR."

"I don't know how many rounds of CPR I did. I know at one point, God was telling me, 'He's going to come back, just keep doing it,'" Leeson's friend Kristin Moon, who performed CPR on Adam, added.

Moon's CPR saved Adam's life, according to Leeson.

"If that was not available, he wouldn't have made it. He would've come out and would've laid there while we waited for someone to come and help him," Leeson said.

Leeson wants parents to know that drowning in real life looks nothing like it does in the movies.

"KNOW THE SIGNS OF STRUGGLE! Adam didn't look like he was struggling! He wasn't splashing, thrashing, or screaming. He was simply underwater and couldn't get his head above water," she wrote on Facebook.

She also advised parents to learn CPR: "I do know CPR. Could I have performed it in that moment? I like to believe I could have if I hadn't seen someone else taking charge. I like to think if I had been alone, my survival skills would have kicked in. Luckily, I don't know, because my amazing friend was busy saving him, but I do know that if I didn't know CPR, my helping him if we'd been alone wouldn't have even been a possibility."

"Please take water safety seriously. I never thought this would be me. It was me, but thanks to God and my dear friend Kristin, my son is still safely here. Learn from my mistakes so it's not you," she concluded.