MIDDLEBURG – Sabrina Anderson broke down in tears recounting the story of how a simple daily bath would change both hers and her son’s lives forever.

“My boys have been my absolute world and I never imagined that, just in a moment, things just changed. It was a just normal day, just like any other day in the world, getting the boys fed and bathed so they could get picked up by my mom so I could go to work,” Anderson said.

Conner was 12 days shy of turning a year old when he would end up face down in the bathtub with his two-year-old brother. It happened when Anderson stepped away to get fresh towels, about 20 feet away from the bathtub.

“I hear splashing and giggles, you know, not a big deal. And then, all of a sudden, I hear my oldest son, Andrew, who was two/three at the time, say, ‘Mommy, come look at this, Mommy come look at this’,” she said.

She walked in the bathroom and found Conner upside down and blue. Her then-mother-in-law began immediately performing CPR, someone else called fire and rescue and then law enforcement entered the picture.

“The drive in the back of the cop car to the hospital was very intimidating and very scary, not knowing what we were going to come to when we got to the hospital,” she said.

After reaching the emergency room and getting treatment, Anderson said, doctors first gave Conner 24 hours to live. Then, it became two weeks “because he’s already a miracle child – two weeks later, they say, ‘OK, he’s obviously defeating the odds. He’s doing everything he’s not supposed to be doing. Kids in this condition don’t live,” Anderson said.

While Conner beat the odds, he lives with a brain injury and requires close medical supervision. Anderson shared her story May 17 with various healthcare professionals who want to work in the coming months to lower Clay County’s infant mortality rate.

Heather Huffman, administrator for the Florida Department of Health in Clay County, led the meeting and said Anderson’s story of survival “brings it home for us” and exemplifies how infant deaths are preventable.

“I think we’re very blessed to still have this little boy in our community and for him to have such an amazing mother that really sees him as a blessing and to make him a priority and I think that’s very fortunate,” Huffman said.

Each Florida county is required to assess the data involving infant mortality for a 10-year period as a means of devising what aspects of the healthcare system need to change in the future to lower childhood deaths.

“If one baby is dying, that’s one too many for our county, so we really need to start having these conversations about where we can collectively work together and collaborate and make sure that we’re getting consistent messages out to mothers and really work on those specific issues that are happening here in Clay County.” Huffman said. “We can look at regional data or state data or national data but that might not be what’s happening here and we really need to focus on what’s happening here in this county.”

Some of the high points Huffman discussed includes disparities in healthcare in Clay County among white and black mothers, low birth-weight among black births and keeping mothers in pre-natal care once they enter care. However, one of Clay County’s largest problems is with mothers who smoke and are also obese.

“We really need to look at getting women healthy before they’re pregnant, such as at a healthy weight. We need to look at smoking – smoking’s an issue in our county – tobacco use. We need to get them to not smoke, but also to not smoke while they’re pregnant and then we need to look at those infant deaths that we have that are preventable, the SUIDS deaths, the ones that are preventable, such as accidents and improper or poor sleep practices and things like that,” Huffman said.

After her presentation involving the data and working as facilitator, Huffman had the approximately 28 attendees write down what they viewed as the top three issues that need to be addressed in order to lower infant deaths in Clay County. Substance abuse, education and obesity emerged as three issues important to attendees. In the coming months, Huffman and her staff will work with meeting attendees to devise an action plan that is required by Sept. 30.

“So, all of our community partners from our hospitals to our social service agencies and nonprofits, our faith-based organizations, our school system, all of those are part of our local public health system because they are all impacting people’s health. We want to get them to their optimal health. We know that if we work collaboratively, we’re going to be more efficient and we’re going to be more effective,” she said.