A 2-year-old girl who was pulled from the water at her Mastic Beach home last Monday has died, marking the second young child to drown in a Suffolk County backyard pool in the span of a single week. Her death has renewed alarm among police and water-safety experts about a summer marked by a string of pool emergencies on Long Island.
The toddler was found in the water at her home on Mill Drive, and a family member performed CPR until first responders arrived at the scene. She was rushed to NYU Langone Hospital in critical condition and later transferred to Stony Brook, where police say she died three days after the drowning despite the efforts to save her.
In a separate scare, also in Mastic Beach, Suffolk police say a 13-year-old boy nearly drowned in a backyard pool on Biltmore Drive just before 8:30 on Sunday night. The teen was taken to the hospital and is expected to be okay, but the close call added to a growing list of water emergencies across the area this summer.
Suffolk police say officers have responded to 11 calls for help involving backyard pools over the last two months, including two fatal drownings of little children in just the last week. The frequency of the incidents has prompted first responders to once again sound the alarm about the dangers lurking in residential pools.
Experts warn that the very young and the elderly are most often involved in these incidents, and that for children between the ages of one and four, drowning is a leading cause of death in the United States. They stress that drowning can happen quickly and silently, often without the splashing or cries for help that people expect.
Safety advocates urged constant adult supervision, recommending that families designate one or two people whose only task is watching the pool, and that a private lifeguard be considered for larger parties where attention is divided. Instructors said teaching children the rules in and around the pool, much like lessons about crossing the street, can also help prevent tragedies.