A firefighting crew that had been battling the Dixie Fire in California, one of a growing number of wildfires plaguing the West and Southwest, detoured from their standard operations and saved the life of a young boy from a hotel pool drowning accident. The first responders were staying at a hotel and on a break from fighting California’s largest wildfire when they heard the mother of the boy screaming at the property. The cry for help was coming from the hotel pool area.
The first responders rushed to the pool area to find a 10-year-old boy in the water and unresponsive. Brian Basso, one of the men detailed to fight the Dixie Fire, was one of the men who jumped the fence surrounding the hotel pool to rescue the drowning boy. According to Basso, the boy “had water in his lungs and was not breathing and he had no pulse.” Another of the first responders that rushed poolside succinctly summed up the task at hand when he said “we know what that means, it’s time to work.”
And work they did. The firefighters saved the drowning boy’s life.
The team of rescuers performed life-saving measures. The boy eventually sat up and started to cry. According to one of the team members “it’s funny, as paramedics, you know when kids cry that’s good. It means they have an airway.”
Once the boy was breathing again, he was transported to an area hospital. A person who experiences a drowning incident must be seen by medical professionals promptly. There are cases in which a person is rescued from a drowning accident, appears to be in the clear, but experiences a significant and even fatal issues after the initial incident.
The firefighters indicated that they were grateful to have been “in the right place at the right time.” As of the beginning of the week, the Dixie Fire had burned nearly 200,000 acres in Butte and Plumas counties in California. The Dixie Fire had merged with another California blaze, known as the Fly Fire, over the past weekend. This resulted in a massive conflagration that the heroic team who saved the drowning boy’s life were fighting to contain.
Many of the people fighting the Dixie Fire had recently returned from a stint battling the Bootleg Fire in Oregon. The Bootleg Fire currently is the largest burning in the United States, having already destroyed 400,000 acres.
Thankful that the 10-year-old boy survived the California hotel drowning accident thanks to the fast acting first responders, hotel and child crowning statistics are sobering:
- Two minutes after submersion in the water a child will lose consciousness
- Irreversible brain damage occurs between four to six minutes after submersion
- The majority of children who survive hotel drowning accidents are pulled from the water in under two minutes
- 86 percent of children who were rescued after 10 minutes died or were pronounced dead at the scene
- Emergency medical treatment associated with a near-drowning accident can amount to somewhere in the neighborhood of $75,000
- Costs associated with a near-drowning accident that results in brain damage can exceed $5.5 million
If your son or daughter has been injured in a hotel drowning accident, or a drowning accident at some other location, you undoubtedly have significant questions about your child’s legal rights. The same is certainly true if you’ve lost a child in a drowning accident. The Doan Law Firm is here for you at this difficult time. You can reach our firm by calling (800) 349-0000.
Attorney Jimmy Doan is a nationally recognized authority on child drowning cases. Jimmy oftentimes is sought out to consult with other law firms on death by drowning as well as near-drowning cases. Jimmy and his team work tirelessly to fight for justice in child hotel drowning cases and in all other types of drowning accidents and aquatic accidents.
A nationwide law firm, we can schedule an appointment with a child drowning accident lawyer at any one of our 40 offices. We can also schedule an initial consultation at your home or anywhere else convenient for you. A virtual appointment with a child drowning accident attorney can be arranged online as well. There is no charge for an initial consultation and case evaluation.
The Doan Law Firm makes an attorney fee promise to you. We will never charge an attorney fee unless we win your case for you.
