MIDLAND, Texas — Belle Cooper and her twin brother, Will, just turned three. Belle was born with a hole in her heart and had open heart surgery at just 9 months old.
"It was kind of scary, and you know all the way up until her heart surgery, I was kind of scared, is she going to make it, is she not," said Taylor Cooper, Belle's mom.
But Belle showed she wouldn't let even heart surgery stop her.
"She is very feisty, she doesn't take anything off her brothers," said Janette Lewis, Belle's Great Grandmother. "If she wants something, when she got her heart surgery, she would just take it away from them."
In June of last year tragedy struck. Belle was playing in the pool, and when her family was turned away for an instant, she started to drown.
"We don't know how it happened, but we started CPR and we got to Midland Memorial Hospital, they got her back, she was on a vent," said Cooper.
Belle was then taken to a Lubbock hospital, where doctors gave the family some bad news.
"They said that she would never be able to walk, there was hardly any kind of brain activity whatsoever, and it was very scary," said Cooper.
Belle's family wasn't going to lose hope, so they started looking for solutions and ran into a story about a girl just like her.
"She was 2 years old like Belle here, and she was a near drowning baby as well, and it was awesome, they did the hyperbaric with Dr. Harch, and the little girl started talking and walking, and it was like nothing ever happened to her," said Cooper.
The family quickly went to the same doctor in Louisiana to start Belle on hyperbaric oxygen treatments, and they worked.
"We got there, we did the treatments and she is a totally new child from what she was until now," said Cooper. "She's totally different."
The treatment is working, but there's still a ways to go. They want other people that have experienced something similar to know that there is hope.
"Near drownings, it's going to be a long road, and I did not realize how long of a road it is, but it is a new blessing, it is a new blessing everyday," said Cooper.
The family is holding a benefit miniature golf tournament Tuesday to help pay for Belle's treatment and the hyperbaric oxygen chamber that has helped her progress.
The tournament will be at Green Acres Mini Golf in Midland starting at 6 p.m.
COM Aquatics and the Midland Fire Department will be there to promote water safety.