County stresses awareness in child drownings as deaths increase
According to the Center for Disease Control, drowning is the leading cause of death for children ages 0 to 4. So far this year, there have been 20 major injuries connected to drownings and seven deaths, two of those deaths occurred in the Coachella Valley. There were four child drownings in all of 2017. County officials are calling the increase in child drownings a crisis.
“There was a nine-year-old girl from Palm Desert who fell into the water while chasing a tennis ball. Mom was doing laundry and didn’t even realize her daughter had slipped out,” said Kim Saruwatari, the director for the Riverside County Department of Public Health, during a press conference Monday.
Saruwatari read the names of those seven children today during the press conference in Lake Elsinore. She is asking parents to be aware of the increase in drownings, which she says are all 100% preventable.
It takes less than one inch of water for a child to drown, just enough to cover mouth and nose. A child can lose consciousness in 30 seconds or less, have irreversible brain damage after 4 – 6 minutes or survive a drowning with severe brain damage requiring life-long medical care.
The Social Service division has a $34,000 grant to help families with low-cost or no-cost swim lessons.
‘SoCal Water Babies’ is one of their providers that teaches self-rescue.
“We teach them how to lay on their back, relax, float, and breathe,” said Cathryn Van Der Linden, senior instructor at ‘So Cal Water Babies.’
Instructors at the organization do not discourage crying, they actually believe it may be useful in order to alert others for help should a baby fall in to a pool or large body of water.
“These lessons give your child that second line of defense to be able to survive if they fall in,” Van Der Linden said.
For more information on free or low-cost lessons at ‘SoCal Water Babies’ click here. To sign-up for lessons, click here.
Make a Splash for Joel also offers free self-rescue swim lessons from ISR in Cathedral City. Email makeasplashforjoel@gmail.com for more information.
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