THE Mother of a baby who nearly drowned when her bath seat tipped over and trapped her underwater has warned other parents 'don't leave them for a second.'
Samantha Thompson put six-month-old Francesca in the baby bath seat and left her playing with sister Isabella as she fetched their pyjamas from another room.
The mother-of-three said she had been gone a 'matter of minutes' when she noticed the giggling had stopped and there was an eerie silence in the bathroom.
When she rushed back Francesca was face down in the bath with the safety chair pinning her underwater. "I can't explain what it was like, I was hysterical. I pulled her out of the bath and her body was lifeless," she said.
"I put her on the bed and called 999. I didn't know what to do, I just kept telling them my address and saying 'she's dead, she's dead.
"Her lips were blue and the colour had just drained from her. I will never be able to forget what she looked like. That image will stay with me for the rest of my life."
Francesca spent two days in Barnsley hospital before being given the all clear on Saturday. Now Samantha wants to use her terrible ordeal as a warning to other parents not to be complacent.
"I know that some people will think 'she should never have left them' but I bet, if people are honest, every mother in this country will have left them for a few seconds and that's all it takes. You never think it will happen to you and these seats give you a false sense of security.
