貝拉·曼西利亞斯正在玩倒立。

對8歲的孩子來說，在大人說話的時候盡情玩鬧，比如玩?zhèn)仁址团嬉稽c也不稀奇。但貝拉的媽媽凱蒂·曼西拉斯解釋說，現(xiàn)在貝拉能這樣玩幾乎是奇跡。

六年前，貝拉剛兩歲時曾被送進醫(yī)院，嘔吐失控把液體吸入肺部，阻塞了呼吸道。貝拉到醫(yī)院不久就停止了呼吸，腦電圖也有一會成了直線。“哦，天哪，貝拉快死了?！眲P蒂記得曾對姐姐說。

貝拉在生死邊緣掙扎不是因為胃部病毒，也不是因為喝了農(nóng)藥。凱蒂說，罪魁禍?zhǔn)资且粋€黏糊糊的彩色小包，在美國家庭中越來越常見的汰漬洗衣凝珠。

凱蒂·曼西利亞斯經(jīng)常為住在圣迭戈郊區(qū)的大家庭洗衣服，每次都得拖一大堆東西去附近的洗衣店。她第一次看到洗衣凝珠就覺得很方便，當(dāng)時凝珠剛上市，里面是濃縮洗衣液，而且很容易攜帶。

2012年11月17日，凱蒂從好市多買回第一盒汰漬凝珠，順手放在廚房臺子上。凱蒂記得盒子是透明塑料的，上面有個按鈕，按下就可以打開蓋子。當(dāng)時她正在忙著整理買回的東西，轉(zhuǎn)過身就看到貝拉打開盒子拿起一個凝珠往嘴里塞。等到凱蒂搶走，貝拉已經(jīng)咬了一口?！皬谋砻婵创_實像糖果。我覺得貝拉就是當(dāng)成糖果吃的。”凱蒂說。

凱蒂趕緊打電話給毒物控制中心，對方告訴她要灌貝拉喝32盎司的水，然后等30分鐘，看看會不會嘔吐氣泡。“27分鐘后，她開始嘔吐?！眲P蒂回憶道?！熬拖衽菖輽C里冒的泡泡一樣。”

Bella Mancillas is standing on her head.

For an 8-year-old to be exuberantly goofing off, performing cartwheels and splits while grownups are talking, is nothing out of the ordinary. But as her mother, Katie Mancillas, is explaining, in Bella’s case, it’s almost miraculous.

Six years ago, when Bella was 2, she was rushed to the hospital because she was vomiting so uncontrollably that she inhaled fluid into her lungs, blocking her airways. Not long after she arrived, Bella stopped breathing and briefly flatlined. “Oh, my God, I think Bella’s gonna die,” Katie remembers telling her sister.

The cause of Bella’s near-death experience wasn’t a nasty stomach virus or a toxic pesticide. According to Katie, it was a squishy, multicolored packet that’s an increasingly common presence in American homes: a Tide Pod.

Katie Mancillas often did the laundry for her large family in the suburbs of San Diego, lugging loads to the nearby laundromat. When she first saw the pods—easily portable packets of concentrated detergent, then new to the market—she thought they’d be a useful convenience.

On Nov. 17, 2012, Katie brought home her first case of Tide Pods, from Costco, and placed them on the kitchen counter. Katie recalls that the case was clear plastic, with a button on top that opened the lid when pushed. She was unloading her groceries, she says, when she turned around to see that Bella had opened the case and was about to put a pod in her mouth. She bit into it before Katie could snatch it away. “It literally did look like candy. And I honestly think that that’s what she thought it was,” says Katie.

Katie immediately called poison control and was told to force Bella to drink 32 ounces of water and wait 30 minutes to see if she started vomiting bubbles. “At 27 minutes, she started projectile vomiting,” Katie recalls. “It was just bubbles, like from a bubble machine.”

他們趕緊去醫(yī)院。到醫(yī)院時凱蒂看到貝拉的臉已經(jīng)憋藍(lán)了，醫(yī)護人員用一根呼吸管穿過她喉嚨里的氣泡，立刻轉(zhuǎn)移到兒童醫(yī)院進入昏迷，然后從肺部吸出清潔劑。

凱蒂講話時，一旁的貝拉也停止了即興體操，縮進媽媽一側(cè)的沙發(fā)里。在T恤、背包和筆記本上的閃光襯托下，神采奕奕的小姑娘立刻陰沉下來。

兩周時間貝拉生死未卜，凱蒂在醫(yī)院里日夜焦灼。終于貝拉有了自主呼吸，但面臨著嚴(yán)峻的挑戰(zhàn)，要重新學(xué)習(xí)走路和說話。從此以后她經(jīng)常生病，醫(yī)生推測是由肺損傷導(dǎo)致。最嚴(yán)重的是眼睛。貝拉患上一種斜視，眼睛垂直錯位。醫(yī)生認(rèn)為原因是中毒期間缺氧。她一直在努力學(xué)習(xí)讀寫，做了兩次眼科手術(shù)，可能還要做第三次。

“過得很艱難。”貝拉說，這一刻她很像個疲憊的成年人，而不是無憂無慮的孩子?！暗门朔??！?/p>

They raced to the hospital. When they arrived, Katie saw Bella turn blue as medical staff struggled to steer a breathing tube through the bubbles in her throat. After Bella was intubated, they transferred her to a children’s hospital, where she was placed into a medically induced coma so that they could try to suction the detergent out of her lungs.

As Katie retells the story, Bella ends her impromptu gymnastics routine and nestles into her mother’s side on the couch. Her otherwise bright demeanor—illustrated by the glitter that covers her T-shirt, backpack, and notebook—turns somber.

After two weeks of Katie not knowing whether her daughter would pull through, Bella started breathing on her own again. But she had serious challenges ahead. She had to relearn how to walk and talk. She got sick often after the episode, which her doctor surmised was because of the lung injuries she had sustained. The most serious effects have been on her eyes. Bella has a type of strabismus in which the eyes are misaligned vertically; her doctors attribute it to oxygen deprivation during the incident. She has struggled to read and write properly, and she’s had two eye surgeries, with a possible third to come.

“It’s hard,” says Bella, who in this moment sounds more like a jaded adult than a carefree kid. “But you just kind of have to fight through it.”