It is the first Monday of the summer holidays and Camilla Ohlsson Håkansdotter has taken the children Wille and Herbert to the summer cottage. She puts the breakfast away and is talking on the phone when she reacts to the silence.
The son Herbert, 1, is not seen.
– It’s like I get electricity through my body, I get so fucking scared. I don’t know why I think of the pond, because he has never shown any interest in it. But I just feel that I have to go to the dam, says Camilla Ohlsson Håkansdotter to TV4 Nyheterna.
So Camilla runs there. At first she doesn’t see him, she only does when she gets closer.
– I see his back, he is lying and floating face down. Then I grab him, turn him over and he’s all pitch white with blue lips and half-open eyes. I feel that he is dead, there is no life, says Camilla.
Do CPR for 25 minutes
She begins CPR while calling 112, where the person on the other end of the phone guides and urges her to continue until the ambulance helicopter arrives.
– After 25 minutes I hear the helicopter coming and landing. Within a minute they say he has a pulse, he’s alive right now, she says.
Herbert was kept sedated in the intensive care unit for two days. On Thursday they let him start to wake up, then his eyelids were heavy with fatigue. But two days later, Herbert is exactly as he was before the accident.
– Then on Saturday it just clicks. He becomes aware, looks, laughs, plays with a balloon. Then we were sent home and discharged, then there have been follow-up checks. But today we kind of notice no difference, says Camilla.
“Then you would never have become human again”
Already last spring, Camilla started talking about the fact that they have to cover the dam, because it can be dangerous.
– That’s the reason why I want to share and want to participate, because I hope that this story can make people fix those things that come to mind. Because accidents can always happen, says Camilla.
– I lost my attention, you feel guilty. Had it not worked out, you would never have become human again, she continues.