Children's Safety Zone

More than 1,000 students went to college this week to learn water safety, while getting a day off from school, winning stuffed animals and inking their handprints under a pledge to watch water hazards.

The students came from Chandler, Mesa, Gilbert, Ahwatukee and the Salt-River Reservation to participate in the 12th annual Water Safety Day on Tuesday at Chandler-Gilbert Community College.

Among the games and activities was a poignant reminder: 20 pairs of children’s shoes representing children who drowned last year in Maricopa County.

The tiny shoes lined a walkway next to silhouettes of children’s faces, each standing for water-related incidents last year in the Valley. Of the 80 other children who nearly drowned, eight will have a lifelong disability. Some of those children become patients of Phoenix Children’s Hospital, which sponsors the event.

“It’s part of our injury-prevention center,” said Allison Otu, a spokeswoman for the hospital.

Students participated in a six-week class before attending Tuesday’s safety day. Drowning prevention education is aimed at first-graders because studies show they retain the message best, Otu said.

Drowning-prevention education appears to be working. The drowning rate has fallen to the lowest per capita in 20 years.

One child each from Chandler, Gilbert and five adults from Phoenix have died in water-related incidents in the first three months of 2011.

Water Watchers began in 1998 after 3-year-old Weston Letter died in his family’s swimming pool.

The annual water-safety day marks the kickoff to swimming season. Valley temperatures hit the high 90s this week.

At Tuesday’s safety day, emergency workers demonstrated water rescues. Students watched a puppet show, played carnival games and toured firetrucks.

They also recited the ABCs – adult supervision, barriers and classes – of drowning prevention with prodding from their teachers.

“I learned to be safe around water,” said Malachi Solomon, a 7-year-old first-grader at Islands Elementary School in Gilbert.

Ethan Alexander, a first-grader at Chandler Traditional Academy-Freedom campus, said he learned that water safety is “really important.”

Although his parents don’t have a swimming pool, Ethan said he wants a boat.

“I’m going to convince them,” he said.

Near Drowning Puts Child in Critical Condition: MyFoxPHOENIX.com

PHOENIX – An 18-month-old child is in the intensive care unit at St. Joseph’s Hospital in central Phoenix, after being pulled from a swimming pool.

The little girl is in critical condition. She apparently squeezed through a doggy door and fell into a relative’s backyard pool, near 32nd Avenue and Sweetwater.

The 18-month-old little girl wasn’t breathing when she was rescued from a backyard pool around 5:00 p.m. Tuesday.

“En route we were doing everything for her, breathing for her and providing chest compressions to try and resuscitate her,” says Fire Capt. Scott Walker.

There was no barrier around the pool, and it appears it hadn’t been cleaned in awhile. Investigators tell us the toddler was visiting relatives when she slipped through the doggy door and fell in.

She may have been underwater for as long as 2 minutes before a family member found her.

“That’s what we typically see is, there’s a lot of people in a home, someone gets distracted, somebody thinks somebody else is watching their child, child gets lost in shuffle.”

There were as many as 8 children and 3 adults, including the toddler’s mother, inside this home at the time.

We’re told a motorcycle officer made it to the scene first and immediately began performing CPR.

For him this call was especially heartbreaking, because he has an 18-month old child at home.

“We just have to make sure if you have a pool, you have a huge responsibility to make sure its protected and you’re doing everything you can to make sure this doesn’t happen,” says Capt. Walker.

The child is on a ventilator as of Tuesday night.

PHOENIX — In the wake of yet another drowning, the Phoenix Fire Department is reminding parents of the need to watch children around water at all times.

Capt. Jonathan Jacobs of the Phoenix Fire Department showed Tess Rafols some simple things you can do to keep the little ones from tumbling into that backyard swimming pool.

Most drownings and near drownings happen in swimming pools, but there are other hazards. Bath tubs, wading pools, hot tubs, toilets and even buckets can also be dangerous, especially to toddler and infants. A child can drown in as little as 1 inch of water.

While there are many different kinds of drowning dangers for kids, many of which don’t seem obvious right away, swimming pools remain by far the biggest issue.

Twenty Maricopa County children drowned last year. All but two of those incidents happened in a swimming pool.

Everybody should know the ABCs of water safety.

A – Adult supervision
When it comes to keeping kids safe around water, the most important thing is adult supervision. Adults should have eye-to-eye contact with kids at all times.

B – Barriers
While there is no substitute for adult supervision, fences and locking gates can go a long way in keeping kids out of the swimming pool.

C – Classes
Not only should children take swimming lessons (although lessons in no way replace supervision), adults should be trained in CPR in case the unthinkable should happen.

There have already been 19 drowning incidents in Maricopa County this year. Fourteen of those were fatal.

Fire and rescue crews soon will be pounding the pavement to get the word out about the importance of water safety.

With a goal to reach 60,000 homes, fire personnel and volunteers “ﾔ including those in Mesa, Tempe, Chandler, Gilbert, Apache Junction, San Tan Valley and Queen Creek “ﾔ will be distributing informational brochures and tips door to door in partnership with Banner Cardon Children’s Medical Center, Rural Metro Fire Department, Southwest Ambulance and Salt River Project’s Safety Connection from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday.

With 16 fatalities from water-related incidents in the Valley this year so far, including eight in the East Valley, the agencies are encouraging people to read the literature and not throw it away. They say water safety education can help save more lives, especially in the way of having a fence around the pool, adult supervision and knowing CPR.

“It’s been an early start for drowning calls,” said Michele Long, a fire and life safety education safety specialist for the Mesa Fire Department. “We’re hearing that this is happening to people who never thought it would happen to them. We want to stress this is not about parenting skills “ﾔ it’s about a turn of the head. Toddlers can get out of your sight so quick.”

Five of the year’s East Valley water-related fatalities are children, according to statistics reported by fire departments throughout Maricopa County to Children’s Safety Zone, which monitors drowning calls. Gilbert has had two child fatalities from water-related incidents, Chandler one and Mesa two, according to the statistics.

Last year by April 30, there were no fatal drownings in the East Valley, but there were 10 fatal drownings throughout the rest of the Valley, including five children, according to the statistics.

In fact, the leading cause of death for children in Arizona ranging in age from 1 to 4 are drownings, the statistics show.

In many cases, although parents keep a watchful eye over children during family events around swimming pools, all it takes is a turn of the head, two inches of water or someone not knowing how to swim to create a dangerous scenario if a small child or an adult falls into a swimming pool, bathtub and most recently, the Salt River in east Mesa. On Sunday, the body of a 16-year-old boy was recovered; he apparently drowned trying to swim across a 50-foot stretch across the river on Pebble Beach near the Blue Point Bridge, in Rural/Metro Fire Department’s jurisdiction. Witnesses saw the boy go under about 1 p.m., but nobody could get to him or find him, said Mark Cichocki, a Rural/Metro spokesman.

At least one East Valley family was lucky after one recent water-related incident, but rescue officials stress that’s a rare outcome.

The morning of April 17 began busier than normal for a Sunday at the home of Suzanna Saghin in east Mesa: Nine-year-old Tristin Saghin was inside the house playing a video game. His mother Kimberly had just finished combing the hair of Brooke Saghin, Tristin’s 2-year-old sister, and was folding sheets as they were getting ready to head out for the day. Suzanna, their grandmother, was taking a shower. Then it hit them like a ton of bricks “ﾔ “Where is the baby?” Kimberly asked.

Unknown to all of them, Brook Saghin was outside and had fallen into the family pool. She was found floating in the water, not breathing “ﾔ and it wasn’t known how long she had been in it.

That weekend, there were at least four drowning calls in the Valley alone, including the fatality of a 3-year-old girl at a Mesa home the day before. The Saghin incident was the only one with a positive outcome; after Brooke’s mother pulled her out of the pool, Tristin performed CPR on her “ﾔ something he learned from watching the movie “Black Hawk Down.” The boy’s actions proved pivotal in saving his sister’s life before emergency crews arrived and took her to the hospital.

“This could’ve happened to anyone, but we never thought it could’ve happened to us,” said Brooke’s father, Chris Saghin, who flew into Arizona from the family’s home in Las Vegas when he was informed of the incident. Earlier this month, the mother of an 11-month-old girl pulled her from a bathtub in Tempe after the child’s mother left her unattended with the water running, but it didn’t drain out of the tub properly.

The child remains in critical condition, according to information from the Tempe Police Department.

“No body of water is safe,” said Cichocki.”We want to get the word out to stress the importance of adult supervision and fences around pools. Drownings can happen to anybody, anywhere, anytime, but with people being educated on water safety, it can better be prevented.”

Contact writer: (480) 898-6533 or msakal@evtrib.com

PHOENIX – A 1-year-old boy is in very critical condition after being pulled from a Phoenix pool Tuesday afternoon.

Phoenix Fire Department spokeswoman Michelle Miller said fire crews responded to the area of Indian School Road and 59th Avenue for a report of a possible drowning.

Scott Walker with the Phoenix Fire Department said there were several people at the home when the boy somehow got out to the pool. Officials tell ABC15 it could have been anywhere from five to 15 minutes before he was discovered floating on the surface of the pool.

There are no secondary locks on the doors and no fence around the pool, according to Walker.

When fire crews responded to the scene, the boy was reportedly out of the water, but was not breathing.

“When we arrived, he had no pulse, he was blue in color. Basically his body was dead at that point,” Walker explained.

The boy was transported to St. Joseph’s Hospital where personnel were reportedly able to get a pulse. The child continues to be in very critical condition, however.

“The latest word I have is the child is in very serious condition,” said Walker. “The prognosis I have does not look good at this point. We are hoping for the best, but it’s a very serious situation.”

It is not clear how long he was in the water.

Area residents tell ABC15 they were saddened to hear their youngest neighbor is now fighting for his life.

“That hurts. It’s a baby, it’s a child,” said neighbor Barry Gomez. “The pool is something that you need to always watch, especially if you have children.”

There is an investigation to see what exactly happened.