A 2-year-old boy was airlifted to an Orlando hospital Tuesday after being found unresponsive in a pool, according to St. Cloud officials.
The St. Cloud Fire Rescue Department responded around 7:45 p.m. that day to a home on Settler’s Creek Trail after the boy’s sibling found him in the home’s pool. The boy’s parents were at the home and placed a “frantic” 911 call, according to fire rescue spokesperson Andrew Sullivan.
The family estimated the boy might have been in the pool for up to 10 minutes before he was found. Sullivan said 911 operators gave the family instructions over the phone on how to perform CPR.
When paramedics arrived, they “realized the seriousness of the situation” and decided to have the boy airlifted to Orlando Health Children’s Arnold Palmer Hospital. He was still unresponsive when he was loaded into the helicopter, Sullivan said.
The agency did not have an update on the boy’s condition as of Wednesday evening, he said.
“This is a not a common occurrence for us. And so it’s really devastating to the community when it happens,” Sullivan added.
The city of St. Cloud recommends several swim safety tips to prevent children from drowning. Those include constant adult supervision, the placement of physical barriers and alarms around pools, swimming lessons for children and CPR lessons for adults.