I watched my husband almost die in front of his family on vacation after playfully holding his breath underwater. We're lucky he survived a condition we'd never even heard of.

• The husband of a woman almost drowned.

• Prior to the incident over two years ago, the 28-year-old had never heard of it.

• The story was told to Lucy Laing.

An as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with a friend. It has been edited to make it clearer.

I didn't think I would lose my husband on a family vacation.

The summer of 2020 was when we were at a hotel on one of the islands. I watched him from the sun lounger while he was in the pool.

While playing a game with his father and sister, he saw how far they could swim from one end of the pool to the other without stopping. They had played it many times on family holidays.

The man put on his goggles and began swimming. He stayed under the water after touching the end of the pool.

When Chandler didn't come up from the water I thought it was part of the game

When Bubbles came to the surface, I thought he was looking for more time under the water.

The mom ran to the side of the pool and yelled at her husband that something was wrong. I didn't understand why she was panicked for a short time. We knew something wasn't right when his father pulled him up.

After his dad got him out of the water, we could see that he was gray and blue. He was not moving. His dad performed cardiopulmonary assist by the side of the pool after checking his pulse.

As I stared at what was happening, I was numb with fear and shock. It was hard for me to understand where he was lying. He was fine a short time before. It didn't make sense.

I watched for what felt like a lifetime as doctors tried to revive Chandler

Two guests who were sitting by the pool came over and said they were doctors and took over. There was no sign of life for five minutes.

I was lifeless as he lay there. He was dead for five minutes.

Paramedics tried to shock his heart into starting after they arrived. A person shouted "there's a pulse". He was allowed to go home after six hours after he was taken to the hospital.

The doctors were by the pool when it happened and treated him immediately. It was a last minute decision for him and his family to go to the pool, according to one person.

The doctors told us that he had drowned. We hadn't heard of it before.

There are no signs of distress and the fatality rate is high. It can kill someone in less than 2.5 minutes.

It's possible to play a trick on the mind if you hold your breath before you go underwater. The brain's signal that it needs to breathe is blocked when the carbon dioxide levels in the body are very low. The person can drown before they know what is happening.

Chandler has no memory of almost dying

It has been over two years since the incident, but it still has an impact on our family.

We know that a lot of other families do the same and that's why we want to raise awareness of this phenomenon. It could have been a lot worse for us that day.

After a lot of testing, the man has been given a clean bill of health.

He was a father for the first time. James was born in August of this year and his dad is so happy that he was given the chance to be a father. No other family has to go through what we went through.

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