Children's Safety Zone

The 7-year-old Somerton boy who was saved from drowning by his 12-year-old brother and a neighbor Saturday morning is back home and recovering, according to Robby Rodriguez of the Somerton/Cocopah Fire Department.

The two boys had been swimming without adult supervision at the Chaves Apartments complex in the 500 block of Somerton Avenue when the older brother went to their apartment for a drink. When he returned, he spotted the 7-year-old at the bottom of the pool.

A neighbor who was outside heard the older boy screaming and went to see what was happening.

The neighbor and the older boy pulled the boy from the pool. The 7-year-old was unconscious and not breathing. The neighbor administered CPR. When SCFD firefighters arrived at 10:52 a.m., they found the 7-year-old boy being held up by his brother and with pool water coming out of his mouth.

This is the third drowning or near-drowning instance involving children that the SCFD fire department has responded to in recent years, according to Rodriguez. A 14-month-old child drowned in a uncovered cesspool in March 2010, and a 4-year-old girl was pulled from a canal in the area of East Main Canal Bridge on the East Cocopah Indian Reservation in 2008.

“If a parent gives a child permission to use the pool, they must be there to watch the child at all times. It must be done,” Rodriguez said. “We don’t want any more children killed while being unattended.”

SCFD firefighters returned to the same complex later that same day for an unrelated medical call, according to Rodriguez, and observed five more children swimming unattended in the pool.

“That didn’t set well with us. We met with the apartment complex management (Monday morning) and offered to teach a pool safety class to all the residents. It is our job as firefighters to get this information out there so incidents like this don’t keep happening.”

Rodriguez said the SCFD is also proposing a city ordinance that establishes minimum public pool safety requirements. Currently, the city of Somerton code only requires pools to be completely enclosed by a permanent fence, wall or barrier.

The intent of the Ordinance Development Team, he said, is to specify required fence heights, gate types (self-closing), proper signage and appropriate safety devices.

Glendale parents handed off their child to an ambulance while en route to the hospital after the child nearly drowned Monday night, Glendale Fire Department spokesmen Daniel Valenzuela said.

Three minutes after a 911 call was placed, firefighters arrived at a home near 48th Avenue and Carol Avenue to find that no one was home.

The parents of the child, who is approximately 2 years old, had left their home to rush their child to the hospital. On the way, they saw an ambulance, flagged it down and sent the child to a nearby hospital. The child was in critical condition late Monday, Valenzuela said.

The cause of the near drowning is still under investigation.

The Glendale Fire Department encourages families to follow the instructions of the 911 dispatcher and wait until firefighters arrive at the scene of such incidents, Valenzuela added.

TUCSON – A three-year-old who nearly drowned in a southeast-side pool has been flown to a nearby hospital in critical condition after emergency crews managed to restore his pulse.

At about 8:45 a.m. this morning, Rincon Valley Fire Department crews were dispatched to the 11000 block of South Cienega Dam Place, southeast of Tucson, according to RVFD Assistant Chief Lee Bucklin. Crews arrived at the house within five minutes to find the male victim’s father performing CPR on him.

RVFD crews were able to restore a pulse to the child within five minutes, and he was flown to a local hospital in critical condition, Bucklin says.

Based on indications at the scene, Bucklin says the child may have been in the pool for up to 10 minutes.

Bucklin says the pool was gated with a self-locking gate – crews at the scene are still unsure how the child was able to get into the pool.

Stay tuned to News 4 Tucson for updates.

PHOENIX – A 4-year-old Phoenix boy has drowned after being found face-down in a backyard pool.

The Arizona Republic reports Friday that the boy’s mother told firefighters that she started looking for him after he didn’t respond to her calls Thursday evening.

Earlier, he had been playing in the yard with his two older siblings.

The boy’s parents found him in the pool, and he was unresponsive when he was pulled out.

His mother started CPR and called 911.

Firefighters took him to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

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