NASSAU COUNTY, FLORIDA, Fla. — A month ago, on July 1, a Nassau County deputy and residents of a neighborhood swimming pool, rescued a 3-year-old child in a near drowning incident, according to the Nassau County Sheriff's Office.
The incident, posted in a video onto the NCSO's Facebook page, took place at 5:13 p.m. in the Lumber Creek neighborhood on Rock Court in Yulee. Surveillance video of the pool, showed the child was playing with a toy while standing on the edge of the pool.
Nassau County Sheriff Bill Leeper says a group of neighbors pulled the boy out of the water and began performing CPR "four minutes later," after the child went unsupervised.
Moments later, the surveillance footage posted on the sheriff's office Facebook page, show a deputy responding to the incident. Fortunately, Leeper says the life-saving measures helped the boy breath again, as he was taken to a local hospital in critical condition by Nassau County Fire Rescue first responders.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says more children ages one to four, die from drowning than any other cause of death.
According to the Facebook post, the Nassau County Sheriff's Office says the child has made a full recovery.
Neighbors at the pool were shocked to see the video.
“You never know what a situations going to bring and it breaks my heart," La Chapelle, who lives in the neighborhood said.
The video received hundreds of comments, including from Heather Spurlock, whose son drown 10 years ago.
“We all think that it can't happen to us until it does. I thought that because we didn't have a swimming pool at home that our child was not going to drown," Heather Spurlock, with North Florida ISR, said.
The CDC says more children between the ages of 1 and 4 die from drowning than any other cause.
Spurlock started teaching swimming class for children as young as 6 months old after the death of her son, teaching them how to float on their back if they fall into the water.
“We train the muscle memory to give us a float for 3-7 seconds, then we flip over and get our air so we want them to have really good breaths before they flip back over and swim again," Spurlock said.
The national drowning prevention alliance says learning to swim can reduce the risk of drowning by 88%.
“Having that knowledge now I know that these lessons would have saved my child's life. And I just it takes seconds and drowning is silent," Spurlock said.
On Your Side
Prevent drownings by:
- Teaching kids how-to swim
- Learning CPR will help in saving lives
- Have designated adult supervise children when at the pool. Keep arms-length reach of a child when nearby the pool