HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) - Gia-lynn Pacheco, a 12-year-old girl from Kauai, was swimming with her cousins in Hanapepe River a few weeks ago when she dove into shallow water and hit her head.

“She felt tingling in her legs and she was trying her best to swim but none of her arms or legs were moving,” Pacheco’s father Brandon Pacheco said.

At first, Pacheco’s cousins thought she was joking.

“You know, kids, the cousins were telling her ‘stop playing, stop playing,’” Brandon Pacheco said.

But soon after, Pacheco’s cousins realized she was drowning.

“One of her cousins jumped in soon enough and pulled her to the edge of the river mouth,” Brandon Pacheco added.

At Wilcox Medical Center, doctors discovered Pacheco had fractured her neck.

Pacheco was then flown to Kapiolani Medical Center

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