5 year old Beaumont girl learns to walk again after near drowning

A 5-year-old girl is learning how to walk again after nearly drowning in the Neches River two weeks ago.

What happened in a matter of seconds to Keiaisha Roberts will take months to overcome.

Keiaisha loves to laugh, but just a short time ago, her family was afraid they might not see her smile again.

"At first she was not talking, words not coming out clean. She's doing better now since she came home," said Keiaisha's mother, Ashley Sias.

Keiaisha spent a little more than a week at Texas Children's Hospital in Houston after she came close to losing her life in the river.

On June 13, Shatara Sias took her children and niece, Keiaisha, to Colliers Ferry Park on the Neches River. She turned around to take care of her daughter and moments later, Keiaisha was under the water, said Shatara Sias.

She said a man saw her looking for Keiaisha and began looking, too.

"Everybody was trying to grab her from me, and I didn't let them. I started doing CPR," said Shatara Sias, Keiaisha's aunt. 

She said her niece didn't have a pulse when a good samaritan pulled her out of the water.

Today, the young girl is making strides.

"She's telling us 'come get me out this bed. I'll get up and walk myself!'" said her mother, Ashley Sias.

Keiaisha will start therapy at Memorial Hermann Baptist Hospital next week.

"She's going to pick it back up pretty easily because she started right now," said the child's mother.

Family members said the accident has taught them how quickly something tragic can happen.

"It happened real, real fast. Real fast," said Shatara Sias.

The family is just happy to hear Keiaisha laugh again.