Our 3 year old daughter Alivia Faith Mikinka drowns in neighbors pool 6/4/22 and is on life support.

 

 

 

 

Our sweet, loving, kind, adorable 3 year old daughter Alivia unknowingly snuck out of the house Saturday, June 4th, 2022. We noticed her missing right away and everyone started immediately looking for her. Tragically we didn't find her until too late.

 

 

We desperately searched the house, the farm and the property even taking to the road to look for her. I went down to the neighboring houses calling her name and didn't hear or see anything so I turned around.. a decision I will regret for the rest of my life.

 

 

I considered the neighbors large dogs, I never considered their pool had an open ladder, unobscured for her to fall into. We have a pool but never, ever would I think of leaving it open for someone to get into. It's way too dangerous for our household and I was naive to think others would think the same way as I did. I'm so sorry sweet Alivia Faith had to pay the price

 

 

We were screaming her name looking for her and I drove to the corner crying her name out the windows which in doing so I noticed the neighbor stand up from sitting in their lawnchair looking left and right.

 

 

A few minutes later, I noticed their golf cart slowly creeping down the road and pull into our driveway. I immediately approached and said, "What? What?? WHAT?? WHAT?????" as the person just stared off not saying anything. They finally shouted out that they had found her in their pool! 

 

 

I can't describe the awful sickening doom feeling I felt! I immediately raced down in the truck and ran into their backyard and found her laying on the ground, cold and wet as she had drowned in their pool and had a cardiac arrest.

 

 

What I saw will never leave my mind. I screamed "CALL 911!! CALL 911!" and began to preform CPR. The person hands me their cell phone and said, "Here, they want to talk to you." So I preformed CPR as best as I could, doing chest compressions and mouth to mouth while talking on the phone.

 

 

A wonderful First Responder was there soon after and ambulance after that. They rushed her to Lapeer, then transferred her to Hurley then lifeflight to UofM. All the people who help take care of her are exceptional! I can't say enough good things about them all.

 

 

Everyone tried so hard working on her but ultimately it comes down to the amount of time her brain went without oxygen. It was just too long. We prayed so hard for her to live, to be the sweet pea we all know and love but the main test, the MRI we were waiting for didn't show good things. She is alive and breathing on her own but needs a ventilator to help back up her breathing.

 

 

Whether she could come home without a ventilator or not remains to be seen. We have many weeks and months ahead of us and as I've said, many decisions to make. Please pray for us. People asking for ways to help...

 

 

 

Alivia is a beautiful, happy, fearless, friendly, clever, adventurous, adorable and loving child. We cannot imagine our lives without her and her big hugs and kisses. Our hearts are broken.

 

 

 

 

Our Original Facebook post as posted on my page 6/13/22
 
I'm sorry we haven't updated on Alivia's condition. The results were our worst fear. Our sweet Livvy will never wake up. We are devastated and trying our best to deal with this heartbreaking situation.

I'd like to do something to remember our sweet girl whom we all love. What that is yet, I don't know. Things I'm thinking of...I'd like to help others remember her with the things she liked to do...  watching butterflies, blowing dandelions, singing songs, silly dancing, blowing bubbles, holding hands, being together  ❤️

I would like to advocate for pool safety awareness so everyone's pool, even neighbors', is safe from accidental drownings. Don't leave ladders in pools unattended! Don't build steps to pools without locked gates or an enclosed fence! It takes just 60 seconds to drown. If we could save just 1 family from going through our grief!

I'd like to help care for the rest of Livvy's life, no matter how short or long that may be and whatever that might entail. Her body is alive but the drs say she will never wake up... never open her eyes, never hold our hand and never to be that sweet, wonderful, light of our lives little girl who light up everyone's life with her big smiles and sweet laughter.

If Livvy passes away, we will need help planning a funeral. I'd like to have her precious face and sweet smile engraved on a tombstone for all to see. If she lives, she will continue to need 24/7 around the clock care and several surgeries in order for her to come home where we would take care of her. It would be a lot of driving back and forth and many months of training us how to take care of her, if she survived the surgeries that is. There's no guarantee.

Either way, no matter our options, I'd like to do something, we need to do something for her! I don't want this tragedy to be the defining moment of Alivia's life. I want her life to mean something to others just as she does to everyone who loves her. ❤️  We need to be there for our children to help them through this. Right now, they want to be at Livvy's bedside, just as Mike, Alicia, Austin and I  have been this past week. We have a lot of things we need to do, choices we need to make and a lot of pain to work through together. I want our kids to continue to carry on and live the best life they can right now and make happy memories because that's what Alivia would want them to do. She loved her family so much! Nothing made her happier than snuggling, holding hands and sweet kisses. Our hearts are broken right now. Please pray for our family.