Wednesday, June 30, 1999
Neighbors watch until boy pulled from pool
BY WILLIAM A. WEATHERS
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Police officer secures the scene at pool behind Glen Meadows Apartment.
(Saed Hindash photo)
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An 11-year-old boy lay at the bottom of a Roselawn apartment complex swimming pool for four or five minutes Tuesday afternoon as bystanders watched, before firefighters arrived and pulled him out.
The boy was in critical condition late Tuesday at Children's Hospital Medical Center. His name was not immediately released.
Dena Lathan, who was at the Glen Meadows apartments to visit her grandmother, said she saw a woman, a teen-ager and several younger children standing beside the pool looking in, but making no attempt to rescue the child.
“Nobody yelled. Nobody screamed,” said Ms. Lathan, 26, of Westwood. “They were just standing around looking in the water. They didn't say someone was drowning.”
If she had known the boy was in trouble, he wouldn't have been underwater for so long, Ms. Lathan said.
“I know how to swim. I could have easily jumped in the the pool and pulled the child out. What happened just doesn't make sense.”
Cincinnati fire Capt. Roy Winston said the boy was on the bottom of the pool midway between the 10-foot and 5-foot depth markers when firefighters arrived.
Cincinnati police are investigating the incident, reported at 5:56 p.m. Ms. Lathan said a woman ordered her son to call 911 from a nearby apartment.
“Two firefighters jumped in the pool and pulled him out,” Capt. Winston said.
Firefighters administered cardiopulmonary resuscitation, and “before he was transported we were able to get a pulse,” Capt. Winston said.
“Apparently he was with a guardian, but she couldn't swim.”
Firefighters were told some of the children tried to pull the boy from the pool, but were unable to do so, Capt. Winston said.
A sign on the pool at the rear of 7076 Glen Meadow Lane advises that no lifeguard is on duty. The posted pool rules include one that children under 14 be supervised by an adult.
Ms. Lathan said she estimates it was four or five minutes from the time she noticed the people standing around the edge of the pool until firefighters arrived and rescued the boy.
The proximity of the firehouse on Seymour Avenue in Hartwell to the apartment complex pool may have helped the boy's chances of survival.
The boy's name was being withheld until relatives could be told.
Tuesday's incident is the third within a week involving drownings or near-drownings of children swimming at private pools without lifeguards.
On Friday, brothers Dontay Hill, 10, and Duane Hill, 12, of Colerain Township were pulled from the small outdoor pool at the Forest Glen apartments by three teens.
Also Friday, Dennis Hardenboyd Jr., 7, of Charlotte, N.C., was pulled from an indoor pool in the Hampshire House Hotel in Springdale. He died Monday.
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