Olympic alpine skier Bode Miller and his wife Morgan Beck Miller are opening up about their 19-month-old daughter Emeline's tragic drowning in the hopes it can save just one other child from the same fate.
On June 9, Emeline drowned in a neighbor's pool in Coto de Caza, California. Her mother, Morgan, was steps away inside when the accident occurred. According to People, Emeline "went missing for just a short amount of time" before Morgan found her and attempted to resuscitate her. She passed away the following day.
Bode and Morgan are speaking out about the unimaginable loss on The Today Show, spreading awareness about child drownings. "I can attest from firsthand experience now that it's unbelievable quick and unbelievable sneaky," Bode said in an interview with Savannah Guthrie that will air Monday. "You'd think it's be like some weird circumstance or some strange thing, and it's not. It just happens in the blink of an eye."
Morgan added: “And it is literally — a child under 30 pounds can drown in 30 seconds. And I just keep counting to 30 in my head. That was all I needed. And so, it’s one of those things where, as a parent now, when you go to someone else’s house, survey the home to see if it’s a safe place for your child to be.”
Bode and Morgan, with the help of the midwives who helped deliver Emmy, established a GoFundMe to raise funds to be donated to worthwhile causes connected to water safety education. They're also working with Nicole Hughes, who lost her 3-year-old son Levi in a drowning accident on the same day that Emmy passed away.
Nicole penned a moving essay about the drowning incident that took her son's life, hoping to bring awareness to child drownings. "Do you know that drowning is the leading cause of death in children ages 1-4 and the second leading cause in ages 1-14? Do you know that 69% of children who drown are not expected to be swimming, yet they are found in water? Do you know that a child can drown in less than one minute?"
Bode and Morgan's full interview on The Today Show will air on Monday. "They're an example that it could happen to anyone," Savannah Guthrie said in a clip promoting the interview. "We need to change our thinking around this. It's a really important conversation."