Rhiannon only turned her back to make a coffee. Within minutes, her daughter was gone.

It takes less than four minutes for the average kettle to boil.

240 seconds.

A child only needs 20 seconds to drown.

It's every parent's worst nightmare. Something everyone prays will never happen to them.

Rhiannon Egan-Lee thought she had done everything right. She always kept tabs on her daughter, Ivy. She didn't even have a pool.

In the end, it didn't matter.

Watch: Water safety tips for children. Post continues below

December 17, 2024 started like any other. Four-year-old Ivy was having a playdate with her cousin, the pair of them darting between the house and the garden as Rhiannon cleaned up after lunch.

"It's not a large house, so it was all sort of together," Rhiannon told Mamamia.

"I saw them both at the fridge last when I got the milk out to make my coffee. I had my back turned for three minutes."

Three minutes was all it took.

Rhiannon's niece came running in. Ivy was in the neighbour's pool.

"She'd taken off a paling, maybe two… I just ran so fast and ripped the rest of the fence apart with no struggle," Rhiannon said.

"She'd taken her dress off to go for a swim."

Rhiannon pulled her unresponsive daughter from the water, frantically attempting CPR. Paramedics rushed her to the Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne, where she spent 11 days fighting for life.

Ivy and her mum. Image: Supplied.

The family was meant to be celebrating Christmas; Ivy had only taken her Santa photos days before.

Instead, the holidays were spent by Ivy's bedside, clinging to any glimmer of hope she would wake up.

"It was traumatising," Rhiannon said.

"The first eight, nine days were full of so much hope… We didn't know how Ivy was going to be, but we thought she was going to wake up."

On Boxing Day, the doctors broke the news: "There was nothing more they could do."

Rhiannon elected to have Ivy's organs donated to help save the life of another.

Ivy 'thought everything was magical'. Image: Supplied.

As Christmas approaches this year, Rhiannon feels numb.

"I know it happened, but I don't believe it," she said. "I can't accept it… How did this happen?

"It was out of my realm of possibilities of dangers. I've got all my knives up in the top shelf. I don't keep glass down. I try and keep the house fairly safe."

Her family is struggling, too, traumatised by the heaviness of this time last year.

"My niece, she's so young, but she's not silly and as it's getting worse for me, I think it's getting worse for her," Rhiannon said.

"She's wondering when we're going to bring her home."

Christmas this year is especially hard, Rhiannon said. Image: Supplied.

A coronial investigation into Ivy's death uncovered confronting details about the pool barrier.

The previous owner was required to have the area inspected before selling the home in February.

An inspector had noted "missing/broken palings" on the timber fence. Though the owner arranged a quick fix and the fence was deemed compliant, it soon fell into disrepair.

The day after Ivy was pulled from the pool, an inspector from Latrobe City Council found the fence was "not serviceable".

The coroner ultimately found that while the pool owner "did not foresee the risk", the fence was "not compliant" when Ivy died.

Crucially, the coroner stressed pool owners are "solely responsible for maintaining a safety barrier, including when it may be partly constituted by a boundary fence shared with a neighbour".

This is the part that haunts Rhiannon.

She knew the neighbour's fence was old and wanted it to be fixed, but she never imagined it was a life-and-death situation.

"If it looked like it needed urgent repair, I would have said something," Rhiannon said.

"I've never put her in a dangerous situation, and she played in that backyard on many sunny days."

Fighting for change.

Rhiannon is petitioning for the government to change the rules around boundary fences in pool barriers, in hopes of saving other families from experiencing the same pain.

Recent industry data support her concerns. A report, released in partnership with D&D Technologies and Kids Alive, shows 49 per cent of Australian pool owners are unsure if their pool gate would pass a safety inspection.

Close to 70 per cent of people surveyed in the recent MagnaLatch Pool Safety Report admitted they hadn't checked their pool gate in the last six months or more.

This lack of vigilance is exactly what Rhiannon is fighting to address, starting with the inspection schedule.

Currently, in Victoria, all pool safety barriers must be inspected every four years. Rhiannon wants this to be more frequent and for inspectors to be much stricter.

"We're not handing out bags of lollies here," she said.

"We're handing out safety certificates certified for four years to keep you and your neighbours safe. That's not something to play around with. I don't know why we're not taking it seriously."

She's also demanding an end to timber boundary fences being used as pool fences. Instead, she wants to see multiple layers of protection — pool fences as well as boundary fences.

"If that means that you need to add another side or two to your isolated pool fencing, I'm really sorry, but it's for safety. It's for our children," she said.

Rhiannon hopes her story can help at least one other family. Image: Supplied.

Rhiannon knows all too well that even the most vigilant parent can't prevent human error.

"You can't have eyes on your children 100 per cent of the time. You can do 98 per cent of the time, but you're going to have a few minutes here and there where you're not looking and that's where these safety measures need to come into place, because human error is natural."

Those 240 seconds will forever haunt her.

"I feel like I failed her so much, but it was a few minutes," Rhiannon said.

"I blame myself every minute of the day for making that coffee… It's the biggest regret of my life."

Her pain has transformed into an urgent, crystal-clear message to every other parent: Be vigilant at home. Check if your neighbours have pools. Double-check those fences are sturdy.

If you find something you're unsure about, Rhiannon says, you must fight for it to be fixed — and fight hard.

"If I felt unsafe, I'd be reporting it. I'd be knocking on the door every single day because it's your child's life," she said.

Feature image: Supplied.