3rd near drowning shows need for water safety

In its water-safety campaign, the American Red Cross reminds: “Two seconds is too long to take your eyes off children and water.”

On Saturday, family members of a 3-year-old girl who nearly drowned at the Desert Passage community pool said it was between 3 minutes to 10 minutes from when she had “wandered off” at the pool until she was discovered floating face down in the water by her 14-year-old cousin.

“The cousin told me she thought the girl was kidding around until she grabbed the girl’s hand and she was turning blue and had stopped breathing,” said Jon Sheaffer, a Maricopa firefighter who was one of the responders to the call around 3:30 p.m.

The cousin pulled the girl out of the water and the 3-year-old’s aunt performed CPR.

When Sheaffer’s crew arrived the girl was breathing and alert, he said. She was transported to Cardon Children’s Medical Center in Mesa for observation and released Sunday.

“The girl is doing fine today,” Sheaffer said Monday. “This really speaks to the importance of reacting early. The child is out of the hospital now and has no lingering effects.”

Saturday’s incident was the third near drowning of a child at a pool so far this year in Maricopa, he said.

On June 10, a 4-year-old boy was pulled from the community pool at The Villages and in early May a 3-year-old nearly drowned during a birthday party at a residence. Both children survived.

Like Saturday’s near drowning, adults at the incidents last week and in May performed CPR on the children before the fire department arrived.

“Anytime someone performs CPR and gets the first link in the chain of survival started, that’s a good thing,” said Sheaffer, who is the father of two children younger than 3.

On New Year’s Day, two brothers, ages 6 and 10, drowned after they slipped into an irrigation canal in Hidden Valley.