A 4-year-old boy drowned in a residential pool in Plano Saturday.
Plano Fire-Rescue arrived at the home on Seltzer Drive to find a neighbor performing CPR on the child, who was then transported to Children's Medical Center in Plano where he was pronounced dead.
Plano officials said the family was home at the time of the drowning and that the child had been out of their sight for about five minutes when he was found in the pool.
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It is not yet known if any charges are expected to be filed in connection with the case.
"According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), drowning ranks fifth among the leading causes of unintentional injury death in the United States and children ages 1 to 4 have the highest drowning rates with most of those drownings occurring in home swimming pools," the city said in a news release.
The CDC recommends the following:
Fencing: Appropriate pool fencing significantly reduces the risk of drowning. More than half of all swimming pool drownings among young children could be prevented by four-sided fencing that completely separates the pool from the house and the yard. The fence should be at least 4 feet high, and have self-closing and self-latching gates that open outward, with latches that are out of the reach of children.
Swimming Lessons: Formal swimming lessons and water-safety skills training can start at a young age. In fact, the American Academy of Pediatrics supports swimming lessons as young as age one. The decision to begin swimming lessons should be based on the individual child's exposure to water, emotional maturity, physical limitations, and health concerns. Participation in formal swimming lessons can reduce the risk of drowning by as much as 88% among young children aged 1 to 4 years, who are at greatest risk of drowning.
Life Jackets: Even in a pool, inexperienced swimmers and young children may benefit from wearing properly fitted life jackets. Do not use air-filled or foam toys, such as "water wings," "noodles," or inner-tubes, in place of life jackets for flotation support. These are toys and are not designed to keep swimmers safe.
Supervision: Children should never be in or around a pool alone. Barriers to pool access should be used to help prevent young children from gaining access to the pool area without caregivers' awareness. Four-sided isolation fencing, door locks, gate locks, and alarms that are triggered when someone enters the water are examples of barriers. Most young children who drowned in pools were last seen in the home, had been out of sight less than five minutes, and were in the care of one or both parents at the time.
