Broward Boy in "Very Grave" Condition After Falling Into Swimming Pool

Ryan, Dana, and Nathalie Rodriguez discuss a Broward boy whose condition remains “very grave” after video showed him underwater for 15 minutes. They also discuss other recent drowning incidents and the importance of water safety.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
The Ryan Gorman Show podcast presented by VERA and VERA
Accident Attorneys from Tampa.

Speaker 2 (00:07):
It's good morning, Natalie, Good morning.

Speaker 3 (00:09):
Well, we start off with a call that every single
parent dreads and it's a nightmare playing out right now
in North Lauderdale. A two year old little boy is
fighting for his life at Broward Health Medical Center and
what doctors are calling very grave condition. Sunday morning, Bringhamer
captured the toddler wandering into the family pool tragically. The

(00:30):
video shows he was in the water for anywhere from
ten to fifteen minutes before an adult notice pulled him
out and started CPR. And this is just the fourth
major child water tragedy in Broward this month alone. Last
week we had a nonverbal two year old drown in
plantation in a pond. A four year old girl drowned

(00:53):
in a plantation leak the week before. Another four year
old boy lost his life in a North Lauderdale pool
about a mile away. Last month and last year, we
just we had a record setting a year of child drownings.
That's a child anywhere from seventeen and younger.

Speaker 2 (01:13):
And we also had one recently in the Tampa Bay
area where a mother was at an apartment complex, a
party at the pool, wasn't paying attention, left her kid
in the care of another eight year old and ten
year old. I forget how old that child was.

Speaker 3 (01:30):
I think four. I think it was a four year
old child.

Speaker 1 (01:33):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:33):
And then the mother was drinking, she was on her phone,
she got up, walked away.

Speaker 3 (01:38):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:38):
Yeah. Well what made that one so egregious is that
this was a party at a pool at an apartment
complex with tons of people kids and adults around, and
the kid was in the pool for nine minutes before
anyone realized the four year old to drowned. Oh yeah,
but these drownings, especially in South Florida, because we had

(02:00):
so many in the span of just a couple of days.
It's been one after another, just tragic. And you know,
Florida is a state with so many bodies of water,
and we see this year in and year out. And
that's why How old, Dana, let me start with you,
how old was it when your kids learned how to swim?

Speaker 4 (02:23):
I want to say they were I mean, they've been
in the pool since they were really little. I want
to say, probably like three years old. They learned how
to swim and They actually have infant swim classes where,
starting at like six months old, you can teach your
infant not how to swim necessarily, but how to survive
in the water, where they literally drop the infant in
the pool and then guide them to show them how

(02:44):
they can get out of the water and float on
their backs. And I mean it's expensive, but it's real.
I mean, it's saved so many kids' lives because if
this child, who was two years old knew how to
do that fall in the pool and at least be
able to get yourself up and get your head.

Speaker 2 (02:57):
Out of the water, yeah, might might have survived. I
mean fifteen minutes, it's a long time, a very long time. Yeah,
I might have run out of energy. That's kind of
like what my dad did teaching me how to swim
drop me into the deep ense didn't help me out though,
you know, I just had to figure it out myself. Natalie,
what about you with your kids?

Speaker 3 (03:12):
My children learned early, early on. But these stories really
do strike a chord with me. One of my best
friends lost his son when he was just about a
year old. It happened in their house very you know,
these are helicopter parents and it happened right around the
Memorial Day weekend. There was family, there was a fence

(03:34):
around the pool, and in a matter of seconds, their
little boy went under the water. And yeah, yeah, so
he was he was officially brain dead. And they kept
him on a machine for as long as they could,
and they just they you know, they eventually, years later,
you know, made the decision and they had to bury

(03:55):
their child. And it happened right under their watch. And
it happens with then seconds. So, like Dana said, if
you have an opportunity, there are a lot YMCA and
a lot of different resources. I know down here in
South Florida, in the city of Durell, in Miami, and
in Broward County, there are different academies that do offer

(04:17):
at least a couple of those very very important swim
classes that are free. They'll work with you in some
cases if you can't afford it. But every child and
every parent, at least one parent should know how to swim.

Speaker 1 (04:31):
Can make The Ryan Gorman Show podcast Up We Set
on iHeartRadio, presented by Vera and Vera Accident Attorneys, Tampa