SCOTTSDALE, AZ – Scottsdale police said a 77-year-old woman drowned in her pool Saturday morning.
Scottsdale Fire Department spokeswoman Lori Schmidt said the woman was found face down in her pool near 60th Street and Thomas Saturday morning.
She was transported to a local hospital where she was pronounced dead.
Schmidt said the woman was discovered by her partner and was down for approximately 15 minutes.
No other information was immediately available.
PHOENIX – An 8-year-old boy was pulled from his Valley pool Monday after spending two minutes under water. Two neighbors performed CPR to help bring him back.
Phoenix Fire Department spokesman Larry Nunez said crews responded to the near drowning after the boy fell into a pool at the Puerta Del Sol Apartments Monday afternoon near Osborn Road and 35th Avenue.
Neighbor David Gonzalez said he was watching TV when, “something said to poke your head out the window to make sure the kids were playing where they were supposed to be playing.”
He witnessed two females working to bring back a “lifeless” 8-year-old boy, Gonzalez said. He ran downstairs to help, telling his wife to call 911.
Manny Garcia was on his balcony when he also noticed the commotion. He called 911 as well, and listened to an operator provide instructions on giving proper CPR.
“[Gonzalez] was doing CPR on him and I was assisting,” said Garcia.
Garcia said the mother of the boy was down at the pool, but was “paralyzed” with fear and crying as they worked to revive her son.
“Are you OK?” Garcia asked the boy when he started to come to. “When he shook his head, I knew he was back, but we almost lost a kid.”
Gonzalez said it was a matter of being in the right place at the right time. He said the incident serves as a reminder for all parents to watch their kids around the pool.
“There was no life in that little boy. Just in the water that came out of him; it was probably a gallon of water.”
PHOENIX – A young boy is fighting for his life after being found in a Phoenix pool Monday night.
Phoenix Fire Department spokesman Larry Nunez said the incident happened around 5:15 p.m at a home near 59th Avenue and Thomas Road.
Nunez said the boy, who is almost 2 years old, got to the water through a gap in the pool fence.
Authorities told ABC15 people at the house tried performing CPR on the boy before fire crews arrived.
The toddler was transported to the hospital in extremely critical condition.
Air15 video showed several fire and police vehicles surrounding the home. Police officers could be seen interviewing various people at the scene.
Stay with abc15.com for updates.
Phoenix Children’s Hospital and the Phoenix Fire Department are already working to get kids ready for summer with reminders about staying safe around water.
More than 1,100 first-graders took a field trip to South Mountain Community College on Tuesday for the 14th Annual Water Day.
The kids have been learning about water safety in their classrooms and all the lessons were reaffirmed through rescue demonstrations, carnival games, tours of fire trucks and rescue boats, craft safety reminders, a singing firefighter show and a puppetry show.
The focus of Water Safety Day is to remind kids about the ABC’s of Water Safety. “A” is for adult supervision, “B” for barriers and “C” for classes “ﾔ CPR for adults and swimming classes for kids.
Already in 2013 the Phoenix Fire Department has seen seven water-related incidents, including four children. Three adults have died in Phoenix. One child has fatally drowned in Arizona.
Tiffany Isaacson, water safety coordinator for Phoenix Children’s Hospital, said 10 percent of kids involved in a water-related incident will never recover, meaning they will suffer some sort of permanent injury.
“When the brain is deprived of oxygen it sets off a domino effect in the body,” she said. “There are neurological problems, respiratory problems, digestive problems, skeletal, muscular, it’s a descending quality of life. It’s very hard.”
Isaacson said it takes two to four minutes to lose consciousness and four to six minutes for a brain injury.
Daniel Cheatham, of the Phoenix Fire Department, said what he sees most often is the ripple effect a drowning can cause. Of course lives are changed when a life is lost, but the brain injuries also have a lasting impact on families.
“There’s a huge impact on families if a child suffers brain damage,” he said. “A spouse has to stay home to take care of a child and the divorce rate goes sky high after a tragic incident such as this. The ripple effect is what we really see and it’s completely preventable.”
Now that the weather is warming up Phoenix Children’s Hospital and the Phoenix Fire Department want to remind residents to be safe around water.
“I give a lot of statistics because I want people to understand how big the problem is,” Isaacson said. “Every one of those is a life that’s lost. It’s a child who will never become a parent. Maybe they were going to become a doctor. Maybe they were going to find a cure for cancer. Maybe they were just going to be a wonderful friend to someone. We’re never going to know. It affects their families, friends, classmates. The reason for all the fire department support is when they run on a call of a child who was healthy 20 minutes ago and they can’t save them, it’s devastating for them and doctors and nurses. I have talked to all of these people and they have told me how hard it is for them.”
For more information on water safety, visit www.phoenixchildrens.com and search for “Water Safety” or call (602) 546-1712.
PHOENIX — Phoenix police sent the dive team out to a canal near 36th Street and Camelback Sunday morning after a dead body was found in the water.
Authorities said the body was discovered just before 10 a.m. by someone who was near the canal.
The body was fully clothed, but police don’t know how long it was in the water.
“There was no indications from our earlier shifts that there was an issue or problem,” said Lt. Stan Hoover. “It does look like this body has been in the water for quite some time and speaking with some SRP representatives it may have moved this far down as far away as 56th street.”
Police have not said if the body is that of a man or a woman, or how old the person may have been.
The body has been taken to the medical examiner’s office for further investigation.
EL MIRAGE, AZ – Police say a 1-year-old boy is in critical condition after a near-drowning Thursday afternoon in El Mirage.
Kim Walden with El Mirage police said the boy was home with his grandmother in the backyard near Cactus and El Mirage roads.
The grandmother went into the house to check on something on the stove and came back outside to find the boy face down in the swimming pool, Walden said.
He had a pulse and was spitting up water, Walden said.
Air15 video showed crews airlifting the boy to a nearby hospital.
There was a stroller in the pool, but there’s no word on why that was there.
Walden said the circumstances surrounding this incident are under investigation.
MARICOPA, AZ – A 6-year-old boy has died after he was found submerged in the bathtub Christmas night.
Maricopa fire officials told ABC15 when the boy arrived at Cardon Children’s Medical Hospital in Mesa he was alive, but not responsive and not breathing on his own.
This happened just before 6:30 p.m. at a two-story home in Maricopa. Officials said Wednesday the boy died shortly after 7 p.m.
We’re told family members were home and the 6-year-old was found in the tub. He had reportedly been feeling ill beforehand.
He wasn’t breathing and he didn’t have a pulse when paramedics arrived at the home.
The drowning is under investigation, however officials say there are no suspicious circumstances.
PHOENIX – A Valley family was very thankful to have their little girl safe in their arms on Christmas.
She slipped into a canal on Monday and one man’s quick thinking helped save her life.
An ABC15 crew got an exclusive interview with that good Samaritan.
“Just seeing how close she was to the edge, it just caught my eye and literally as I was thinking ‘wow she’s close,’ I saw her slip in,” Patrick Harkness said.
The canal walls are really steep and Harkness couldn’t reach the 8-year old, but he found the nearest thing that would work.
He grabbed a ladder from someone’s backyard.
It was just enough for the little girl to hold onto until rescuers arrived.
Together they formed a human chain and lifted her to safety.
Thinking back to the moment Harkness said, “He was able to grab her and bring her up and then I grabbed her from him and just kind of passed her up a little bit, then somebody behind me grabbed her and we got her out.”
Harkness says he was just in the right place at the right time, but for the family of the little girl it was a Christmas gift they’ll cherish for a lifetime.
GLENDALE, AZ – Authorities say a 2-year-old girl is in critical condition Wednesday after she was found in a swimming pool in Glendale.
The incident happened around 12:30 p.m. near Northern and 109th avenues.
The girl’s mother noticed she was missing and searched their house, before finding the girl floating in the backyard pool face down, said Sgt. Brandon Jones with the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office.
After calling 911, the girl’s mother and grandmother started performing CPR as directed by the fire department, Jones said.
The girl was awake and crying before being airlifted to Phoenix Children’s Hospital, Jones said.
She has since been listed in critical condition.
Deputies said they believe the girl crawled out of the house through the doggie door. The swimming pool does not have a fence around it.
It’s unclear how long the girl was in the pool.
TEMPE, AZ – Police have identified a man found dead in Tempe Town Lake early Monday morning.
Authorities say passersby heard a splash and saw the victim, 34-year-old Christopher Robin Gonzales, flailing his arms around 3 a.m.
One of the witnesses tried to save Gonzales but was not successful. Another witness called 911.
A fire rescue worker pulled the 34-year-old’s body from the water and divers then went looking for any possessions in the water belonging to the victim that would help identify him.
There was no immediate word on how or why he ended up in the water.
