Children's Safety Zone

A Lake Havasu City toddler was airlifted to a Las Vegas hospital Saturday after he reportedly fell into a backyard pool and wasn’t breathing when found.

Emergency responders were called about 1:32 p.m. Saturday to render aid to Aiden Cooper, 3, at a residence in the 3500 block of Fiesta Drive, said Lake Havasu City Sgt. Joe Harrold.

Emergency responders en route to the residence were advised cardiopulmonary resuscitation was in progress on the child, said Rick Felish, Battalion Chief, Lake Havasu City Fire Department.

A nearby Lake Havasu City police officer also was dispatched to the scene to assist the fire department’s response to the call.

“The father of the 3-year-old was performing CPR when the officer arrived,” Harrold said. “And the child began breathing on his own just as the officer got to him.”

Harrold said it’s standard protocol for a Havasu police officer to respond to incidents involving individuals who aren’t breathing.

The child was transported to Havasu Regional Medical Center by River Medical ambulance service. The boy was soon transferred by Careflight medical helicopter to Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center in Las Vegas, Felish said.

Lake Havasu City Fire Department responded with eight firefighters aboard Engine 4 and Engine 2. The Battalion Chief on-duty also responded, Felish said.

The child’s condition was unknown Sunday, police said.

You may contact the reporter at jhanson@havasunews.com.

ORO VALLEY – The Oro Valley community is mourning the death of a young child after the first drowning of the year.

A 3-year old boy was found in a neighbor’s swimming pool in the 11000 block of Old Ram Court. He was reported missing, Wednesday afternoon. During the search, an Oro Valley police officer found him at the bottom of the neighbor’s pool. The officer attempted CPR, but it was too late.

We spoke with one of the victim’s family members, but with tears in her eyes, she said she had nothing to say and rushed back inside her home.

The family isn’t the only ones affected by this; the entire neighborhood is still shaken by the tragic news.

Wayne Boyd lives in the neighborhood. He said, “Kids playing around here all the time. You see them all the time so it’s shocking. It really is.”

And the neighbors aren’t alone in that feeling. Even first responders were caught off guard.

Anne-Marie Braswell with Safe Kids Tucson Coalition and Rural Metro Fire said, “It’s just not anything that we were ready to even think about because the weather is still cool.”

Cool or not, it happened. Now it’s turned into a tragic reminder of the importance of pool safety and watching over your kids.

Braswell said, “It’s one of those things in Southern Arizona we need to think about year round. When January comes around we need to make our new years resolution to keep our children safe, be a designated water watcher and remember the A,B,C’s of water safety and to talk to all of our children.”

Something this neighborhood hopes to do better in the future, all while mourning the loss of one of its youngest residents.

Boyd said, “To hear that something like that happen here, it kind of hits home. It’s personal. To me it is anyway.”

The incident is still under investigation and police said they’re not ready to release the name or information about how the boy got into the neighbor’s back yard. They’re also not commenting on the possibility of criminal negligence charges being filed but we’ll keep you posted.

A 1-year-old boy was flown to a Valley hospital Tuesday after he was pulled from a Buckeye pool.

The child fell into a pool at a home on the 19000 block of West Virginia Avenue, said Sgt. Jesse Spurgin, a spokesman for the Maricopa County Sherriff’s Office.

He was pulled from the pool and CPR was initiated, he said.

When officers arrived shortly before noon, the boy was breathing and crying, Spurgin said.

The toddler was flown to Phoenix Children’s Hospital, Buckeye Fire Department Chief Bob Costello said.

His condition is unknown.

A 4-year old child died after drowning in his apartment complex pool on Sunday evening.

Family members, neighbors, and friends spend at least 45 minutes searching for little Darshan Kharel, but could not find him.

Tucson Police were called out, and found the boy at the bottom of the pool. Police performed CPR until medics arrived.

Family members told KOLD News 13, the boy was pronounced dead at the hospital.

Police said the pool was closed, and located behind a locked gate.

Family members said they had checked in the pool area, and that the gate was unlocked, but locked by a caretaker later, after they found nothing there.

Family members say the pool waters were dank and murky, and they did not see the boy at the bottom of the pool.

Emotions were charged in the parking lot, as police investigated this drowning. Some neighbors were shouting at the family, saying they had been careless.

Howard Haines said he was very sad and angry.

“I have asked them several times to keep this little boy inside. He is mentally challenged. I’ve told them to keep him over there. That kid is going to be hit by a car. I’ve brought him from the middle of the road already twice,” said Haines.

Neighbor Becca Lewis said she was heartbroken.

“I saw an officer with a baby in his hands, and he was running him into an ambulance,” said Haines.

Family members tell us little Darshan Kharel was a special needs child, who had just had open heart surgery.

KOLD News 13 spoke to the child’s parents, who said they had just migrated to the U.S. from Nepal.

They described Kharel as a very active child, who loved to play outside. His father was the only one who could understand what the boy was saying.

Cousin Hari Manilal told KOLD News 13, the family was devastated.

Neighbors were saddened to hear the news as well.

“I started to cry. It’s just an innocent child. Just a baby,” said Lewis.

Tucson police are still investigating the death.

Tucson Firefighters have a reminder for all parents. Drowning is the leading cause of death in Arizona, for children under the age of 4.

Remember the ABC’s of water safety: Adult supervision, barriers, and classes. It is 100% preventable.

This is the thirteenth water-related incident involving a child in Pima County so far this year.

There have been 9 near drowning incidents and 3 actual drowning incidents in Pima County, in addition to this incident.

With children getting set to return to school, summer is nearing its end.

However, the summer heat-safety awareness season is still in full force, and so far this year, the local results have been mixed.

There have been no vehicular-hyperthermia deaths in Arizona this year, after three in 2010. But 13 children have died in water-related incidents in Maricopa County, a “troubling” number, said Tiffaney Isaacson, water safety coordinator for Phoenix Children’s Hospital.

There were 20 child drownings in the county last year. That number has been steadily rising since the all-time low of 10 in 2006, Isaacson said.

“I don’t think we can deny that a factor is the change in the economy,” Isaacson said. “If you have less money to pay for swimming lessons, to repair the pool fence, to have good child care, you are not able to do the things needed to keep children safe. There are things you can do to protect the children that don’t cost anything, such as making sure someone – someone who can swim – is always designated to watch kids in the pool.”

August, she said, typically is the highest-risk month for child drownings, due to the monsoon humidity and parents preoccupied with the imminent start of school.

“Children really want to be in the pool,” Isaacson said. “If you have children in school, August is hectic. You feel off-kilter, and that is a distraction. When we look at the year, it’s almost as if we can look at a crystal ball and see that it’s hot, and parents are distracted. That’s a bad combination.”

Five children drowned in Maricopa County in August 2010.

With documented heat-related car deaths in temperatures as low as 65 degrees, vehicular-hyperthermia safety season in Arizona never ends. Nationwide, there have been 21 deaths this year, but Jan Null, a San Francisco State University meteorologist, said that two deaths are awaiting final findings and will likely be ruled hyperthermia-caused.

Still, the pace is behind last year’s figure of 49, which was above the national average of 38 annually since 1998. Considering the heat wave that has embroiled much of the eastern U.S., the death tally could be higher, Null said.

“It has been an extremely hot year in the East, especially in the last 10 days,” Null said on Thursday. “And there have been no deaths in the last 10 days. Is that because people are more aware of the heat, especially in regions that are (typically) not as hot as Arizona? We don’t know. It’s certainly a question we’d like to know more about.”

Null recently attended a roundtable hosted by the National highway Traffic Safety Administration in Washington. “All of the big players,” Null said, were there – NHTSA administrator David Strickland, auto-industry representatives and child-safety advocates, focused on finding ways to limit such deaths.

“Hyperthermia is a serious threat that needs to be better addressed immediately,” Strickland said in a statement. “A coordinated, targeted approach on increasing public awareness of this very serious safety danger should help prevent unnecessary tragedies and near-misses moving forward.”

While automakers can develop technology to help keep in-car temperatures lower, Null said, the best prevention still is awareness.

“Leaving children in cars should be a zero-tolerance thing, no matter what time of year,” Null said.

The same is true for child drownings, Isaacson said. Though the total number of deaths in Maricopa County have gone up, the per-capita rate has declined since 2001. That is proof, she said, of the efficacy of ventures like Drowning Impact Awareness Month, which is in August.

“We are making a difference,” Isaacson said. “On the difficult days, when I’ve heard of another drowning, or I have to talk to a devastated parent, I keep a chart in mind that shows the per-capita (drowning) rate. From 2006-present, even though we’re losing too many children, we’re still at the lowest (per-capita) levels on record. That’s because of sophisticated programming.”