A New Jersey father is grappling with profound grief after his three-year-old son, Elijah Stephen, drowned in their family pool over the weekend. Michael Stephen, a police officer and military veteran, described the heart-wrenching moment he discovered his son lifeless.
Stephen was in the kitchen when he noticed the back door to their Blackwood home had been left open. His heart sank as he and his wife, Sandra Sheviln, rushed to the backyard to find Elijah face down in the pool. "The images will forever be burned into my mind," Stephen wrote in a social media post. "I wasn’t fast enough. I failed. I will spend everyday replaying that."
He immediately began performing chest compressions. First responders arrived within two minutes of Sheviln calling 911 and transported Elijah to a local hospital. Doctors were unable to revive the child due to severe brain swelling.
"Within the next few days, we are going to lose our sweet boy. Even if he were to somehow [miraculously] survive, he would have no quality of life," Stephen stated. The family plans to prepare Elijah for organ donation, a decision driven by a desire to prevent other parents from experiencing similar tragedy. "If we have the ability to prevent another parent from knowing this feeling, I’ll do what I can. Elijah would want that as well."
Stephen remembered his son as a "sweet and gentle soul," a "kind hearted kid with a huge smile that lit the room." He expressed the pain of wondering what Elijah might have become and how he could have changed the world.
In his statement, the grieving father issued a stark warning to other parents, emphasizing how quickly lives can change. "Don’t ever take it for granted. Hug your babies. Hug them longer, hug them tighter. You never know when it will be the last," he urged.