Five-year-old Zara Olcer was at a water park in Turkey when tragedy struck.
She fell backwards out of a double rubber ring on a high-speed slide, banged her head and was knocked unconscious.
Mum-of-two Adele Olcer from South Yorkshire was horrified as she watched her daughter lifelessly slump down the rest fo the flume to the shallows below.
However, mother's instinct kicked in and Adele grabbed Zara and managed to get her into the recovery position. She was terrified when she realised her girl's jaw was locked, but fortunately her quick thinking saved the child.
The brave mum had a brain wave. She cleared the child's airways by cracking her tooth.
Doctors at the hospital said that Zara could have been paralysed, but after just three weeks in hospital, the child went back home to the UK and made a full recovery.
"My initial reaction was she was dead. I turned her over when I got to the bottom and her eyes were open," Adele told The Telegraph.
"I thought that was it. She wasn't breathing and her jaw was locked."
As the tunnel slide opened out, Adele, who was sat in the front ring, and Zara, who at this stage had fallen out of the ring, collided and the little one came to a stop, face-down and lifeless.
As her husband and other daughter Isabelle ran towards them, Adele sprang into action and pushed one of Zara's teeth in to help open her mouth, move her tongue and clear her throat.
"I could see what had happened and was screaming, I tipped myself out of the ring to try and get to her but the water was so powerful I couldn't do anything so I had to wait until we came to a stop," Adele said.
"Then I heard her breath and so I put her in the recovery position until the ambulance arrived. I had done an advanced first aid course a week before we went on holiday with work, which is what I think made me stay calm."
Little Zara broke bones in her neck and skull, and broke her arm in two places. She was also left with double vision after the accident.
However, it could have been much worse. In fact, doctors told Adele that Zara would have been paralysed from the neck down if the break had been a quarter-of-an-inch nearer to her spine.
Zara had to wear a neck collar for four months and could not return to school full-time until September 2015. She was given the all-clear in December, and Adele said her daughter is now back to her normal self.
Adele said: "We know how lucky we are - so many children have similar accidents and are not as lucky as Zara."
Adding: "This year we've booked to go away, but we've been very careful not choose one near a water park or a pool with a slide."
How lucky is this little one? It just goes to show the importance of staying cool in a crisis - and getting some first aid education.
