Toddler fished from the sea
When Jessica Whyte was woken to the news that her son had been found floating in the sea, it felt like her heart went still.
She didn’t feel it beat again until she saw the 18-month-old at the camp ground reception. He was purple, cold and looked smaller than usual. But he was alive.
A local fisherman, Gus Hutt, had found her son, Malachi, floating in the sea at Matata Beach, near Whakatane, on October 26.
The toddler was so still and lifeless, Hutt almost mistook him for a doll.
‘‘His face looked like porcelain with his short hair wetted down,’’ Hutt recalled to the Whakatane Beacon, ‘‘but then he let out a little squeak and I thought, ‘oh God, this is a baby and it’s alive’.
‘‘He was floating at a steady pace with a rip in the water. If I hadn’t been there, or if I had just been a minute later I wouldn’t have seen him,’’ Hutt said.
‘‘He was bloody lucky, but he just wasn’t meant to go; it wasn’t his time.’’
Adding to the fortune was Hutt’s chance choice of fishing location 100m away from his usual spot but right where Malachi drifted past.
Malachi had slipped out of his parent’s tent at Murphy’s Holiday Camp about 7am on the Friday and ran into the ocean.
Hutt later traced Malachi’s footsteps down to the water, about 15 metres away from where he’d been fishing.
The toddler usually slept past 8am, Whyte, from Matamata said, but the sound of the waves might have woken him.
Just the day before he had kept trying to run into the sea, stopped by his parents.
The camp manager woke Whyte at 7.30am to tell her the news, but it didn’t register at first.
It felt like a sick joke.
‘‘She was like ‘do you guys
have a young child?’
‘‘Then she said he’s been found in the water.
‘‘It was horrible in between hearing that and seeing him. I don’t think my heart [beat] from hearing that to seeing him. I don’t think my heart worked.
‘‘It was scary but he was breathing, he was alive. Oh God, it was amazing seeing him. I gave him a big hug.’’
Malachi kept trying to fall asleep and Whyte kept him awake until emergency services arrived.
Whyte tearfully thanked Hutt, who had few tears in his eyes, too, she said. She can’t thank him enough and hopes to visit him again. Malachi is still the same playful toddler and he isn’t scared of the water. He still loves showers, Whyte said.
‘‘He’s himself. Maybe he’ll be more aware of water, not run into beaches. But he’s definitely himself.’’
Whyte knows some people will judge her parenting after hearing her son escaped the tent. But she wants to warn other parents ahead of summer.
‘‘Zip your tents up. And zip them up nice and high if you’ve got a child that can reach. Put them on a padlock.
‘‘We wouldn’t let him run into the water by his own. People can have those [judgmental] thoughts. They can think we’re a bad parent. I’m more concerned about people zipping up their tents.’’