Swimming Pool Child Injury – A Cautionary Story

A recent report by ABC 7 tells us that a woman living in San Carlos Park found her young toddler floating face up in a recreational pool. The incident occurred at her father’s home while she was resting. Before napping, she placed her toddler in a nearby crib.

Reportedly, another child awoke her from her nap and told the drowning toddler’s mother about her child. The mother immediately rushed to the pool side to retrieve the body. She performed a few rescue breaths into his mouth which apparently was enough to resuscitate him. He started to cough and cry, and eventually started breathing.

EMS ultimately took the boy to Health Park for final evaluation.

How Quick It Can Happen

There are many takeaways that can be gathered from this story, but perhaps the most starkly is the speed at which an incident can develop with children. Through the information in the story, it can be assumed that Grant (the mother) took precautions for the toddlers safety, and likely only intended to shut her eyes for a few minutes.

As soon as she let her guard down, trouble happened. Children have an uncanny ability of getting into danger the moment you look away, and that is exactly what happened here. According to the story, Grant had seen her toddler escape the crib before but figured he would not be able to escape AND get past the chicken wire fence that was up around the pool. Indeed, this scenario is unlikely but ultimately turned into reality.

Taking care of wandering children is an extraordinarily difficult task, and sometimes proper precautions can mean making no assumptions about potential dangers.

Legal Aspects

There are also legal matters to consider here. In many areas, it is illegal to have a private pool without a fence around it. Even though this pool had chicken wire, it was clearly inadequate in stopping a toddler from entering the area. Be certain to protect yourself from legal trouble and the unpleasantness of this sort of situation from happening in your yard.

Consequently, if you have a toddler and he/she has gotten injured in an environment that was clearly unsafe, you can approach an attorney to discuss your case. In order to help your chances in succeeding in your lawsuit, be certain that the area in question was meant to be used by the general public, that precautions were not present when they should have been, and that the accident could still not be prevented even with better parental supervision.

– Via The Hayes Firm.