Mom grieving loss of son starts a foundation to improve children's lives: "He will be with me..."

Parents who have lost their children will know that life never gets back to normal after their passing. You learn to live with reality and accept your destiny. The best you can do is making a difference in someone else's life if they could.

An Australian mother went through this life-changing phase of agony and she has taken the responsibility to do what she can to make the world better for children in need. Jo-Ann Morris's two-year-old Samuel, from Sydney Australia, sustained a severe hypoxic brain injury as he almost drowned in their back garden pool, reports The Sun.

The jolly toddler was playing with her elder sister in their backyard where their mother had left them believing they were safe and away from the pool area. 

She told the ABC Documentary, The Pool: "There was no splash, there was no yelling, there was nothing. I walked toward the pool gate, opened it up and I saw just a few centimeters under the water Samuel was floating," quotes The Sun.

This left Morris devastated. She later learned that Samuel suffered a severe hypoxic brain injury and other disabilities that require round-the-clock care.

Describing the harrowing moment she picked up his "lifeless" body, the heartbroken mother said, "I didn't even get wet until after I scooped Samuel into my arms."

"I rolled him onto his back in my arms, he was heavy, lifeless, swollen, his eyes were bulging and starey, he was foaming at the mouth, blue around his lips and his nose and his skin was a strange pale yellow colour," she added.

"He did not look like my son. I will never no matter how hard I try, get the picture out of my head how my son was. The look, the taste, the smells, the sounds or the feeling will be with me forever."

She performed CPR on him immediately and rushed him to the hospital. After four months of life and death battle, Samuel started showing signs of recovery. According to Morris, "it was the only time he relaxed."

But life was destined to be hard for Morris and Samuel and the new life that they both got after a tough fight did not last long. Despite beating the odds and surviving for eight years after the incident, the boy succumbed to his injuries in 2014.

Morris, however, showed immense courage and compassion even after losing the priceless part of her being. She went on to set up the Samuel Morris Foundation with a hope to improve the quality of life for children with severe hypoxic brain injuries and campaigning for the improvement of backyard pool regulations.

Established in 2007 it is "Australia’s first charity providing support services to children disabled by non-fatal drowning (or other hypoxic brain injuries), supporting their families, and preventing future drowning deaths and disabilities through drowning prevention education and awareness," claims the website.

Children who survive hypoxic brain injuries require a wide array of support and services that the Samuel Morris Foundation provides to families and children. Through her foundation's Facebook page as well, Morris tries to educate people about brain injuries and guidelines that families should keep in mind when getting a pool in the backyard.