A child drowning occurred Jan. 27 in Anna Maria.
A 19-month-old infant was found unresponsive by the parents in a swimming pool at a residence at 115 Elm Ave., according to Sgt. Brett Getman of the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office and incident reports from the West Manatee Fire Rescue District.
Getman said the house was a private rental, and the child’s parents were employees of the owner who were at the property to make repairs. They had erected a makeshift barrier of pool furniture on the deck to keep the child away from the pool while they worked in a garage.
However, the barrier failed to restrict the child, who crawled unnoticed to the pool and fell into the water.
Upon discovering the infant in distress, the parents called 911 and then attempted to rush their child to a hospital in their vehicle.
However, while driving, they encountered emergency responders at Mangrove Avenue and Gulf Drive en route to their 911 call in the 100 block of Elm Avenue and flagged them down.
Emergency medical services personnel assessed the infant and found no pulse. They began administering advanced life support to resuscitate the child, who remained unresponsive.
EMS continued to attempt resuscitative efforts as the infant was transported to HCA Florida Blake Hospital in Bradenton, where doctors later pronounced the child deceased.
Getman said Feb. 10 that the incident remains an active investigation.
— Robert Anderson
Hello Robert, my name is Carolyn Hodgson, an owner of 115 Elm Avenue. There are a few errors in your story I’d like corrected, since it’s our property and we were not there, and were not informed that the contractor we’d had for 5 years made an extremely poor decision to allow a friend of hers, with a young infant, to help put away cleaning supplies in the garage. We had warned her several times earlier when we caught her with this young child strapped in a car seat while young mom is trying to make extra money. I told her to hire a babysitter and that children are not welcomed or safe at a job site, and for her to leave immediately.
They thought that by pushing heavy patio furniture together in a circle and putting cartoons on, they could leave the child unattended. I very clearly instructed her a young child can never be unattended, not for a minute! He apparently was left there a while, he was found in the hot tub, not the pool. They did try CPR unsuccessfully. They said they called 911 and no one answered or responded over 30 minutes so they took the child in his uncles truck and found help from emergency services.
Our property has a self locking closing gate to the pool. They had intentionally put this child back near the water naively thinking he would remain entertained. They admitted doing this before. She has been fired.