The number of drowning victims in the Houston area has been completely unacceptable this month. True, June is probably the first time of the year that the kids are out of school and have time enough to enjoy a little dip in the water. However, cases involving apartment complex negligence and abhorring parental ignorance are on headlines way too often lately.
Probably the most notorious drowning in Houston this month is that of a 7-year-old boy, who is still in critical condition exactly one week after the atrocious near-death incident. The story has been so popular not because there haven’t been other drowning incidents plastered across the headlines, but because of the appalling circumstances in that particular case. The pool was closed by the City of Houston, with clear red tags and signs posted all over it that clearly stated that it was closed. Still the boy’s mother, Josie Medellin, took him out to the pool and helped him over the locked gate (leaving his siblings unattended at their residence), and watched as he dove head first into the 3 foot section of the pool.
This poor child is not only suffering severe head trauma from diving into the pool, but also other injuries that occurred previously. Because the mother just moved her family here one week ago from Louisiana, the CPS has no information on her…yet. However, they are contacting their Louisiana counterparts to investigate further, and the other three children are currently in foster care. Her clear negligence is irrefutable.
On June 15th, a 4-year old child drowned in southwest Houston while his father mowed the lawn. Although his father tried to perform CPR and he was swiftly transported to a nearby hospital, he later died. This could have happened to any parent; accidental drowning deaths happen in seconds.
On June 24th, another 4-year-old girl died after drowning in a North Houston apartment complex pool. There were a lot of children in the pool for a pool party, and then all of a sudden someone noticed that she was not on the surface. Witnesses said that she must have been under the water for at least a minute, but no one really knows for sure. Paramedics tried CPR on this little girl to, but to no avail. She died later at a Houston hospital. Was there no lifeguard? Apartment complex negligence could be the culprit in this one. A lifeguard would know when there were too many kids in the pool, and would also have noticed the instant this girl started to struggle.
This summer, please be extra careful with your children around swimming pools or any other bodies of water. An accidental drowning can happen so quickly, even to experienced swimmers. Don’t let your children play in a pool with no lifeguard, and make sure you keep a close eye on them the entire time they are in the water. Also, make sure that your backyard pools have sufficient netting and safety gates, so that heart-wrenching stories like this do not become your reality.
