My 15-year-old daughter asked me to sleep at a friend’s house and go to the movies in this past Saturday. I said yes. Always she is communicating with me and checking in with me. But, her plans changed that night and the series of events that followed are nothing that any family should have to experience.
At 10.00 am I received an FB message saying that someone had received a phone call saying my daughter Ryleigh Payton was somewhere passed out. I was totally down and my heart sank and I tried to call her many times, but there was no answer.
I questioned who, where, when why’s… and I didn’t get any answer as that girl was already in the route of finding the girl who called her and my daughter, picked them up and brought them to my driveway.
Lifeless and foaming at the mouth covered in vomit 911 was on their way as I opened the car door to see my daughter. When the ambulance arrived I saw that she was unresponsive and there were no many details rather than she had been drinking vodka. We were confused if she was given or taken anything else so she was given Narcane 4 time only to still fall unresponsive.
She was transported to Heywood where there was no change. We told them that my daughter’s airway was not strong enough and would need to be transferred immediately to Umass.
“While arriving there the doctors informed us my daughter was No longer breathing on her own at all.”
I suffered 14 long hours pleading and begging for my daughter’s life, experiencing flashbacks from the moment she was born, to her first smile and giggle, the first time she said Mumma, her first step, her 1st birthday, her first day of school, her first friendship,sleepover, sickness, her graduation of middle school, our private mother-daughter moments, laughing, joking, running, snuggling and so forth. I also was thinking of her siblings and what losing her would do to them and the rest of her family and all of the people that love her.
I know that my daughter was with a group of teens, they may have thought they would get in trouble if they tried to get help so they left her as they started to notice some signs that Ryleigh was not okay. 1 girl who was not even her friend but an acquaintance stayed with her, trying to find a way to get my information and she succeeded.
That girl didn’t care about getting in trouble herself, but she wanted and tried her best to get her the help she so desperately needed. I’m sure that the other kids who left her were scared and didn’t realize the severity of her condition at the moment. So, I’m sharing our experience so that EVERY TEEN who may come to be in this situation knows….you will NOT get in trouble for getting someone help!!!! You have the ability to SAVE a precious life!!!!! So please reach out and get help no matter what the circumstances.
I would be burying my daughter this week if that one girl didn’t save my daughter’s life by contacting someone who could get a hold of me. PARENTS share this with your children so they see the dangers of underaged drinking and what it can do!!!
Finally by the grace of God my beautiful daughter opened her big beautiful green eyes to see her Mumma and asked for her sister Courtney Ackles after 14 hours. Due to breathing issues, bodily injury from her repeatedly falling while intoxicated, lacerations to her eye, and the worry she doesn’t develop pneumonia from vomit being in her lungs, we are on our way to a long recovery. So, we are not fully out of the woods yet, but she is home, safe and as comfortable as she can be right now.
“Thank you to all who have stood by my family in this time, saying prayers, helping my other kids and husband while I was at the hospital, we are blessed. Please share this to prevent another child from going through this and another parent to endure what I have.”
My 92lb child had a 2.8 blood alcohol level from drinking Ciroc the typical Vodka of choice among young teens these days.
You should know that this could happen to you because it is very real and it’s everywhere!!! Her picture may be disturbing to some but our hopes are in sharing our pain we may be able to PREVENT AND SAVE ANOTHER CHILD!!! SHARE OUR STORY!!!
As she was very lucky, this she was able to return home. But, we saw this posted on social media, from parents around the country, time and time again. Spread the word to prevent even one person from repeating this, as it worth a lot.