Apparently, these parents didn't see the video, or teach their child to swim:
Girl, 4, drowns in pool at Fort Lauderdale home -- South Florida Sun-Sentinel.com
South Florida Sun-Sentinel.com
Girl, 4, drowns in pool at Fort Lauderdale home
By Akilah Johnson
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
March 3, 2008
FORT LAUDERDALE
A 4-year-old girl drowned in her family's backyard swimming pool Sunday, authorities said, marking the fourth time this year that a Broward County toddler has died in a tragic yet all too familiar scenario.
Jade Bowman was with her father as he worked on a fence outside their new northwest Fort Lauderdale home, police said. He sent her inside to her mother in the kitchen, but found the child at the bottom of the pool when he went to look for her minutes later, said Detective Katherine Collins, a police spokesman.
A neighbor called for help at 4:17 p.m., and paramedics rushed Jade to Broward General Medical Center in Fort Lauderdale, where she was pronounced dead, Collins said.
Jade's death was the fourth time in two months that a child under 5 has drowned in an unsecured backyard pool. Two girls — one 3, the other 4 — drowned in Sunrise in January. And last month, relatives of a 1-year-old boy pulled his body from a pool in Fort Lauderdale.
Collins said she hoped this latest tragedy underscores the importance of water safety and knowing CPR in an area where pools and children too often become a deadly combination.
"This appears to be nothing more than a terrible accident," Collins said of Jade's death. "If anything good can come out of this tragedy, maybe parents will think twice about the dangers of children not knowing how to swim."
Drowning, according to Broward County Health Department officials, is the leading cause of death for children ages 1-4 in South Florida.
Police did not release the names of the parents, but county property records list the homeowners as Jason and Marcia Bowman. Police said the family moved into the house, which sits on a canal on Northwest 33rd Terrace in the Palm-Aire Village neighborhood, about a week ago, police said.
There is a fence around the yard, but the pool does not have a separate barrier to limit access to it. It was not clear Sunday which fence the father was working on.
In 2000, state legislators enacted strict laws mandating newly built pools at least have one of the following: a safety barrier, a special pool cover, sound alarms on doors and windows with direct access to the pool, or a self-latching, self-closing gate on all doors with direct access from the home to the pool.
Fort Lauderdale police did not say Sunday when the pool was installed at the home, which property records show was built in 1979.
It was not immediately known if the little girl jumped, slipped or fell into the water, Collins said. A 15-year-old neighbor, Cameron Clayton, said he saw her father frantically pluck the child from the pool, and ran to help.
Cameron said he and friend were fishing in the canal. At first, he said, he thought Jade's father had been bitten by a snake, but quickly realized the gravity of the situation.
"I just ran over there, and he sat her down and I started doing CPR," said Cameron, who was recently certified in mouth-to-mouth resuscitation through his church's youth ministry. "Whenever I was doing chest compressions, all she was doing was throwing up."
Cameron didn't find out Jade had died until about 8 p.m. as he and his father walked to her house to make sure the garage door was closed and the home was secure.
Jeff Clayton, Cameron's father, solemnly shook his head, and said CPR — cardiopulmonary resuscitation — "is like car
insurance. It's something you have but hope you never have to use."
Akilah Johnson can be reached at
akjohnson@sun-sentinel.com or 954-356-4527.
Copyright © 2008, South Florida Sun-Sentinel
