A Montgomery County mother is channeling her grief into advocacy for autism awareness after her 3-year-old son wandered away and drowned last year.
Brittany Bledsoe's son Ace died July 5.
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WATCH HERE“Hold your babies tight is what I can tell you,” she said. “Just hold them tight.”
The 3-year-old wandered from the family’s apartment in Rockville in the middle of the night and drowned in the complex’s pool.
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SIGN UP “I didn’t think this could happen in real life,” his mother said.
Just months earlier, Ace had been diagnosed with autism.
“I didn't know that drowning was the leading death of kids with autism,” Bledsoe said.
Health
Ace is one of seven children with autism who drowned in Maryland last summer.
“I just never thought he would elope like that,” Bledsoe says in a public service announcement by the Maryland Autism Coalition warning parents of the risks.
“Fifty percent of children with autism elope, so that means just taking off,” explained Shelly McLaughlin, co-chair of the Maryland Autism Coalition.
“From the deaths that occur from wandering and elopement, 71% are due to drowning,” she said.
The coalition released the PSA on World Autism Awareness Day.
“We always encourage families to enroll in swim lessons,” McLaughlin said. “It doesn’t have to be that they have to learn a great stroke. It’s something as easy as doggy paddling, treading water, floating on your back. Anything that is life sustaining.”
Bledsoe’s home is full of photos of Ace. His mother even tattooed one of them on her leg.
She also started her own advocacy group, Ace’s Voice.
“He wouldn't want me to be down here, you know, being sad,” Bledsoe said. “So, I just try, I'm his voice. So, I still have to go for the kids that don't have a voice still.”
Bledsoe said she will continue spreading awareness in May, which is National Water Safety Month.
