A mother has revealed the rationale behind a heart-wrenching decision to remove her two children from life support after they drowned together in a pool. Brittney McWhite recounted the devastating event, revealing that her 11-year-old daughter, London Marie, and 14-year-old son, Wadale, were playing in the pool during a family gathering when the accident occurred.
While supervising her kids, McWhite briefly diverted her attention to food preparation, only to find her children in distress minutes later, according to the New York Post.
She recalled hearing her children calling out to each other as they played. However, when she redirected her focus to the pool, she tragically couldn’t locate them. Following a week on life support, McWhite and her family made the agonizing decision to remove life support on Sunday.
“Keeping my child hooked onto a machine for the rest of their life is not ideally what any parent should want for their children, so today me and dad decided to end life support,” she said to Fox 29 in Philadelphia.
“I know they’re at peace, it’s just very devastating,” McWhite told the TV station. “Not to lose one child but two. I think that’s more challenging because you can’t stomach that, but you have to keep going.”
She said her story should be a wake-up call to other mothers to be on constant vigilance for their children who engage in summer water activities.
Tragically, her children were discovered at the bottom of the pool, and despite prompt retrieval, neither regained consciousness.
“Make sure the pool is safe. Make sure if it doesn’t look right, don’t do it,” McWhite said.
“Because once you lose your child, it is hard. It’s really hard to stomach.”
