Children's Safety Zone

QUEEN CREEK, AZ – An 8-month-old girl who was found floating face down in a bathtub at a Queen Creek home Wednesday has died, according to officials.

Pinal County Sheriff’s spokesman Elias Johnson said Chevelle Schettler was pronounced legally dead Thursday afternoon at Cardon Children’s Medical Center in Mesa.

Chevelle was put on life support after arriving at the hospital Wednesday afternoon. Johnson explained doctors said the young girl showed no signs of brain activity overnight.

Johnson said Patreesa Schettler told deputies she was giving her daughter a bath and turned around to get a towel, and when she turned back around found the infant face down in the water.

The mother grabbed Chevelle and ran to a neighbor’s house for help with CPR.

Chevelle was taken by ground ambulance to Banner Ironwood Medical Center and from there she was airlifted to Cardon Children’s Hospital.

Johnson said Schettler’s toddler-aged son was also home in a separate room. Their father was at work at the time.

The case is still under investigation by authorities, Johnson said.

Water-safety officials are urging residents not to let the back-to-school season distract them from watching children around water.

Many parents shift their focus from water safety to back-to-school in August, but it is still important to be vigilant supervising children and ensuring there are proper barriers between them and water, Buckeye Fire Chief Bob Costello said.

“I don’t want people to be complacent,” he said. “I know people are busy right now. It’s the first week of school in a lot of areas around here and that’s where everybody’s mind-set is, but those pools are still there and we just cannot forget about the kids around the water.”

Tanja Tanner, Goodyear Fire Department community-education coordinator, and Lori Schmidt, president of the Drowning Prevention Coalition of Arizona, echoed the sentiment.

Schmidt said children and adults likely will continue swimming in backyard pools until October, so “we need to make sure that we’re paying attention to water safety,” supervising children around water, have barriers like pool fences, secure doggie doors and locked gates in place, and “that we’re being as safe as possible.”

The push is part of Drowning Impact Awareness Month this month, which promotes continued water safety during back-to-school and emphasizes the “ripple effect” a water-related incident can have on a community.

An incident affects not only the child’s family but also neighbors, first responders and doctors, plus schools and churches the child may attend, Schmidt said. Often an incident causes people to re-evaluate and improve their own water-safety practices.

“When a drowning happens, it affects everyone,” she said. “It’s not just that family who’s going to have to live with what happened for the rest of their lives. It’s making an impact for the good or the bad for all of these other people as well.”

There have been six water-related incidents in the Southwest Valley this year, according to coalition statistics. Of those, five were children. None was fatal.

In Litchfield Park, which does not report numbers to the coalition, a 66-year-old woman drowned in her backyard pool May 24. A 58-year-old Goodyear woman, who has not been identified, was pulled from her backyard pool May 8 and taken to the hospital in critical condition. Authorities could not say Wednesday whether she survived.

The biggest issues officials have encountered this year have been adults and teenagers swimming alone or while impaired, lapses in adult supervision and no barriers to keep children away from the water.

Schmidt said adults need to take responsibility for children and themselves.

“Put barriers in place so that when we do have those lapses of supervision that we have something that can slow that child down at the very least before they can get into the water and we find them there,” she said. “And (adults need) to be paying more attention. We’ve got to understand that we’re never old enough to swim by ourselves.”

The Wigwam Resort and Spa in Litchfield Park hosted a free swim day Aug. 4 for 25 Phoenix children from the Salvation Army to teach them about water safety.

The children, whose ages ranged from 7 to 14, toured a Goodyear firetruck and were provided a free lunch. Then Schmidt read them a book, “Stewie the Duck Learns to Swim,” to teach them water-safety rules, and then they were allowed to swim.

Later, people dressed as Santa and his elves surprised the children and handed out backpacks full of school supplies, each valued at about $55. The children were “extremely excited” at the surprise visit and gifts and enjoyed the day, said Casey Hagarty, a spokeswoman for the Wigwam.

This is the second year the resort has hosted a Santa swim day for Salvation Army children.

Water-safety officials said it is important children know how to swim and be safe around water.

The Buckeye Aquatic Center focused on promoting water safety this summer by boosting swim lessons and lifeguard certifications, and offering multiple free swim days.

About 20 lifeguards were certified, 168 children swam on the town’s swim teams, and 1,009 people participated in swim lessons, up from about 480 last summer, Recreation Supervisor Miranda Gomez said.

A 66-year-old man from Phoenix is in serious condition after he almost drowned in the pool at his house Tuesday night, officials said.

The man, who lives near 42nd Place and Union Hills Drive, was swimming by himself in his backyard around 7:30 p.m. when his wife noticed him floating in the pool, said Capt. Scott Walker, a Phoenix Fire Department spokesman.

The man’s wife pulled him to the side of the pool, but he was not able to breathe, and a neighbor called 911 after they heard her shouting, Walker said.

Paramedics treated the man on the scene and transported him to a local hospital. He is expected to live, the spokesman said.

Fire officials do not know what caused the man to almost drown, but they said they recommend that no one swims alone.

TEMPE, Ariz. — The parents of an 11-month-old near-drowning victim found in a Tempe hotel room face child abuse charges.

Summer Dawn Angelly, 23, and Jasen Anchondo, 28, are charged with one felony count each.

Police said the couple’s son was found lying in the bathtub under a running faucet by police and firefighters responding to a call Aug. 12 at the Days Inn on East Apache Boulevard.

“[The child] was found unresponsive when officers arrived,” Tempe Police Sergeant Stephen Carbajal said.

The child was taken to a hospital. He has now been released and it appears he will make a full recovery.

Police said Angelly had run to the motel office screaming about the boy and the motel manager had gone to the room with a cell phone. Although the father stated the child was “OK,” the manager noted the child did not appear to be breathing. She called 911.

Upon questioning, both Angelly and Anchondo changed their story of events. The infant had soiled his diaper and was placed in the tub because there were no more clean diapers. The water was left running and the infant was left alone. Both parents admitted to being aware that their son was in the tub, unsupervised.

Both Angelly and Anchondo were asleep in bed when the boy’s four-year-old sister awakened them, saying that her little brother was “asleep in the tub.”

Police called Child Protective Services, which took custody of the sister, her 2-year-old brother and a twin 11-month-old brother.

“Obviously children are very vulnerable and have the expectation that their parents are going to provide for their safety,” Carbajal said. “What happened that morning was very tragic but just negligent and very irresponsible.”

Police said the parents and four children moved to Tempe from California approximately eight weeks ago, and had been staying with a family member prior to moving into the motel.

Until recently, pediatricians did not encourage parents to engage their young children in water safety classes. However, there is now limited research that indicates when a child is introduced to water with formal lessons, coupled with a parent education component, parents are actually more vigilant about safety and less likely to believe their children are “drownproof.”

Out of this research is a new water safety prescription program called Water SMART Babies (Safety Measures and Rescue Techniques). It was developed by the Florida Water Safety Taskforce and adopted by the Florida Pediatric Society in 2010. The Drowning Prevention Coalition of Arizona began to pilot the program in Maricopa this summer and will be taking it countywide this fall. Plans are in the works to introduce the prescription program in Pima County in 2012 and statewide in 2013.

Through Water SMART Babies, pediatricians now have the perfect opportunity to discuss water safety with the parents of their 9- to 12-month old patients. Healthcare Providers write out a prescription for water safety classes. The parents are also given the Water SMART Babies handbook, which includes tips on home water safety, CPR information, and safety device options, such as pool fencing, door and pool alarms. As the child visits the pediatrician in subsequent months, healthcare providers follow up to make sure the family is getting their home equipped with the layers of protection and the child is participating in water safety lessons.

At www.watersmartbabies.com/az, the parents can find a number of CPR providers and organizations