Children's Safety Zone

The drop in child-drowning deaths in Maricopa County in 2011 over the previous year has water-safety experts doing one thing: stepping up their pleas.

Sixteen children drowned in the county in 2011, compared with 20 in 2010. But the death of one child or one adult due to drowning is one too many, said Lori Schmidt, president of the Drowning Prevention Coalition of Arizona.

Tiffaney Isaacson, water-safety coordinator for Phoenix Children’s Hospital and president of the National Drowning Prevention Alliance, agrees.

“We don’t want the community to think we can stop. We always need that sense of urgency,” she said.

Firefighters, volunteers and those out to prevent drownings and near drownings are back this time of year, going door to door or holding water-safety workshops to spread the message of being careful around water.

That means being vigilant around bathtubs, pools, lakes and rivers.

It also means checking for water in landscape planters, buckets and even animal water dishes.

Those involved with the water-safety walks are handing out information for residents, hoping people will take the message to heart.

Although drowning incidents happen year-round, numbers are often highest from April through August.

Isaacson said that although drowning deaths of children in the county are down, near drownings are up. In 2010, there were 140 such incidents; last year, there were 180.

“And that’s not good,” she said.

As much as prevention efforts need to be made for children, she urges safety for teens and adults as well.

Schmidt, a public-education officer for Scottsdale, said that’s been a focus in her city, which had nine drownings in 2011: one teenager and eight adults.

On Saturday, Schmidt was in Scottsdale helping to organize a local Walk for Water Safety, a partnership between Valley fire departments and Cardon Children’s Medical Center in Mesa. The hospital has given tens of thousands of informational door hangers and wrist tags so communities across the state can distribute them to residents.

Tracey Fejt, injury-prevention coordinator at Cardon, said this year’s walk expanded to other parts of the state, including Tucson, Yuma and Casa Grande.

Schmidt said drowning prevention goes on throughout the year but residents may notice an increase during spring.

“We know that the end of March is when people start thinking it’s warm enough to get in (and swim), so we see a big push in prevention now through early April,” she said.

Having observed the careless actions of adults around water is something that drove Tina and Jan Bech out into the streets Saturday to talk to residents and leave door hangers about prevention.

“I can’t believe parents leave their young children unattended in pools and the hot tub,” said Tina, a volunteer with the Scottsdale Fire Department. “I’ve seen it several times.”

Who says there’s nothing good on TV anymore? A young brother and sister used what they learned on TV to save the life of their 2-year-old cousin.

At their Phoenix home Tuesday, 11-year-old Keanu Moreno and his 9-year-old sister, Demi found their little cousin at the bottom of their pool in the backyard. The toddler was drowning.

“I dived in and I got him and I put him right on my shoulder,” Keanu said. “Then I swam to the top and put him on the floor.”

Keanu and Dime’s cousin, 2-year-old Alessandro had snuck outside an open door when no one was looking.

Laying unconscious on the ground near the pool, Alessandro’s skin had turned purple. He was not breathing and Dime said his eyes were wide-open.

“I was really scared,” Keanu said. “I thought he was dead. I really did, but I wanted him to be alive.”

“I was saying, God please help him. Please don’t let him die,” Demi recalled.

Thinking back to what they had watched on the Discovery Channel and Animal Planet, Demi and Keanu jumped into action. Demi dialed 911 while big brother Keanu started CPR.

“I blew into his mouth, and then I went like this really, really hard,” Keanu said demonstrating how he performed the chest compressions on Alessandro. “He started throwing up all of that stuff.”

Keanu said he only had to do CPR for “about 10 seconds,” but because of how scared he was, “it felt like 20 minutes.”

An ambulance soon arrived and took Alessandro to the hospital where paramedics say he is doing just fine.

The children were being supervised by older teenage relatives at the time.

Ironically, Tuesday was the start of “Water Safety Day” in the Valley.

Captain Scott McDonald of the Phoenix Fire Department said the close call at the Moreno’s house was a fitting kick-off, and a reminder of the importance of keeping watch over children when there is a pool nearby.

“We have an incredible outcome to what could have been a very devastating, tragic event,” Capt. McDonald said. “Keanu and Demi did a great job.”

GILBERT – A 3-year old child has been pulled from a backyard pool in Gilbert and flown to Phoenix Children’s Hospital.

Firefighters tell us the boy was outside with his family near Germann and Power when he slipped off his floaties and then somehow got into the pool.

His family spotted him about a minute later and pulled him from the water.

He was not breathing — but a family member started CPR.

By the time paramedics arrived the boy was coughing up water and is expected to survive.

Five-year-old Joseph Behner recently dove into a pool fully clothed from his long-sleeve shirt down to his dark blue jeans and laced-up sneakers.

He was among four other kids bobbing in the water fully clothed at Aqua-Tots Swim School in north Peoria during an afternoon class.

Although giggling and splashing, the young kids were taking part in a serious lesson — learning what it feels like to fall into water fully clothed.

Most drownings don’t occur in bathing suits, according to the swim school. Rather, it’s sometimes the child who has wandered into the backyard and stumbled into the pool. And it is a different sensation to be in water with the weight of jeans and sneakers.

“Little kids are curious about the water,” said El Mirage resident Marie Behner as she watched her young son in the pool.

Behner remembers a time when Joseph wanted to jump into their neighbors’ pool, out of curiosity. Joseph, being fully clothed and not knowing how to swim, got the OK from his mom and plunged into the pool.

“He sunk right to the bottom and I went in after him,” said Behner, who had also felt the weight of her clothes.

Now, after about a year of taking lessons at Aqua-Tots, Joseph is completely comfortable in the water — as Behner glanced over at him doing a nice backstroke during the lesson.

“They could be the best swimmer, but they don’t know how to swim with their clothes on,” she said. “The weight drags you down.”

Aqua-Tots trainer Laura Adrian, in the pool with the children, reminded them what to do if they’re in trouble: turn on your back and float.

The fully clothed swim lesson was part of the swim school’s drowning-prevention initiative.

Drowning is the second-leading cause of injury-related deaths for kids ages 1-14, according to the Peoria Fire Department.

“We’ve found a great need to start preparing our kids as early as possible,” said Jamie Cartledge, owner of the Aqua-Tots Peoria franchise, which opened in 2007 near 78th Avenue and Deer Valley Road.

The school teaches children ages 2ﾽ and up to swim and the recent session of swimming with regular clothes was added to their regular lesson.

The lessons will run quarterly; starting again mid-summer and in the fall, Cartledge said.

Maricopa County saw 49 drownings last year, according to Children’s Safety Zone, an Arizona-based organization that tracks drowning incidents.

This year, the Valley has seen three child fatalities involving water, according to a report by Children’s Safety Zone.

Last week, in Phoenix, a 2-year-old boy drowned after falling into an unfenced backyard pool near 59th Avenue and Encanto Boulevard.

Behner said she and her husband are more than excited that Joseph is learning about swim safety.

“This (program) is exceptional,” said Behner, “Joseph loves it, and can’t wait to come back.”

TEMPE, Ariz. – It was a close call for a mother whose infants’ stroller rolled into a pond on Saturday in Tempe.

A mother was out jogging with her twin 1-year-old boys, who were in a jogging stroller, in a grassy area near a pond “ﾓ close to Rural and Baseline.

The mom stopped to pick a lemon from a tree, not realizing that the stroller was on a slight incline, according to Tempe fire spokesman Mike Reichling.

The stroller rolled into the pond, and the mom ran and pulled the stroller — with the twins still strapped in — out of the pond, Reichling said.

She went to a nearby home for help.

Reichling said the boys were transported to a local hospital as a precaution but are expected to be OK.