Kiya Livingston is looking for the hero who saved her toddler, Melody, when she got carried away by a waterfall last week. The hero stranger rescued her, and she was able to walk away with minor injuries.
The family was visiting the location for the third or fourth time on May 20, and Livingston explained that the water level was higher than she had ever seen it, probably as a result of recent storms.
The Fayetteville woman described how a day at the waterfall almost turned into a nightmare when Melody plummeted about 15 feet down near Tanyard Creek.
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Livingston told 5News, “We went there to hike, have fun. We were going to go to the lakes, go swimming. I was like ‘let’s go to the waterfalls.'”
She added, “I was sitting on the rocks; she was standing on the bridge with her friends. They were throwing in rocks, and we told her not to get too close. Then somehow, she just stuck her foot in there, and she was gone.”
Livingston stated that they immediately began looking for Melody.
“The current was my first thought, but she was gone. By that moment, she was underwater, she had already fallen down.”
Thankfully, Melody’s savior had already pulled her out of the water before the worried mother and her sister reached the bottom.
“The man that saved her had already jumped in and they said that she didn’t end up having to get CPR. She was thankfully fully wedged between a rock that held her underwater, held her in place, where he was able to scoop her up,” Livingston expressed.
Livingston described it as a miracle from God.
“I think yesterday was completely on God. When I couldn’t get to the water, I had nobody to call on but God,” she said. “He was right there.”
Melody, who was 3 years old when she was saved, just celebrated her fourth birthday on Sunday, according to Livingston. Now they’re trying to find her hero.
“He saved my daughter’s life. So anything that we can do, if we can just say, thank you.”
“I couldn’t have lost her,” Livingston told 4029 News. “She fought and I keep telling her, thank you for fighting to be with me, because if she wouldn’t have fought, she wouldn’t have made it.”
