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Bay Area pushing to prevent child drownings
Kailey Tracy reports
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - The Bellamy family had just finished telling each other what they were grateful for on Thanksgiving when they decided to go to the beach.
Travis Bellamy started packing the car full of their three kids, Kate, Liza and two-year-old Paul’s, things.
"I thought all the kids were upstairs with me," Hannah Bellamy said. "I came down right as he [her husband Travis] was coming in from putting all of the beach stuff in the car and that’s when we both looked at each other and said ‘where’s Paul,’" Hannah Bellamy said.
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Hannah said she ran downstairs, saw the door was open and ran out to the pool.
"I did a quick scan of the pool and I saw him out there, so I screamed for Travis. He was face down floating, and he was about three to four feet from the edge of the pool kind of towards the shallow end of our pool," Hannah said.
"I just had to get him out, and I just prayed that he was still there," she said.
Travis started CPR while Hannah called 911. Several of their neighbors who heard their screams ran over to help, including a retired fire chief who took over CPR.
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"I love that man," Travis said. "He saved my child."
The family had just moved to the neighborhood two months before the accident from Washington state.
"We all know how dangerous water is, but we just moved down here with the doors open, sun shining and in Florida, that’s the last thing you should do," Travis said.
Medics airlifted Paul to Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital where he spent two months, much of it in the ICU. He also spent a week at Tampa General Hospital in their inpatient therapy program.
"I got an update from one of the PICU doctors, and she said to keep hope, but they couldn’t promise anything and that’s one of my biggest fears as a parent that I would ever be in that situation because you know that they have the skill, and they will do everything they can," Hannah said.
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Around Christmas, though, they said Paul started making progress. Doctors diagnosed him with a brain injury consistent with a lack of oxygen. They said it’s too soon to know what part of his brain may be impacted or what challenges he may face.
Travis and Hannah said for the most part so far, Paul seems like his old self – a two-year-old who loves Goldfish and playing with his sisters.
"It’s the best we could’ve ever prayed for," Hannah said. "God carried us through. I didn’t have the strength at all I just. I knew we had to be here for our kids. He was still alive, so I was going to keep fighting until they told me that there was no hope."
Paul goes to physical therapy once a week, speech therapy every other week and has a neurology follow-up in a few months.
They’ve added alarms and latches to their doors, put up a gate, and they’re looking into swim lessons.
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"Every couple seconds you buy though, that’s a couple seconds that they’re not in the water, they’re not in the pool and those seconds matter," Hannah said. "I mean, now looking back with the way he has recovered, his doctors think he would’ve only been in seconds instead of minutes," Hannah said.
All Children’s Safe Kids Supervisor Petra Stanton said safety devices are a great idea, and parents should take other precautions as well.
"None of these barriers are drown proof," Stanton said. "They slow the children down. Make sure your furniture is moved away from the pool because the kids can take chairs and let's say there's a ball left in the pool. They push the chair towards the fence and they can jump right. Also, speaking of toys in the pool, make sure you remove all of them [from the pool]."
Stanton also recommends swim lessons, learning CPR and adult supervision anytime kids are near water. According to the CDC, drowning is the leading cause of death for children one to four-years-old in the United States. Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital said it sees 30 to 40 children each year with some type of injury related to drowning or near drownings.
"I would love everyone, whether they are coming to visit in Florida or they are new and moving to Florida, to have that water awareness, because we are really in a situation that is unique from other states in the country. So, when they come here, they should probably scan the area for the bodies of water that can be accessible," Stanton said.
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"I also would like to really point out that typically these are not done of negligence. These tragedies happen to families who are doing everyday tasks. So, we do say make sure you watch the kids and the water, but it's never to suggest that somebody was not watching the children. They were living life, unloading groceries or doing laundry," Stanton said.
Travis and Hannah said they hope sharing their story helps prevent future drownings.
"It’s the only reason we’re really here is if anyone can be saved from my son, the knowledge of how dangerous it [water] is, especially if you move here from a place where there’s not a whole bunch of water everywhere, we really hope he can reach more people than he already has because he has already touched a lot of hearts," Travis said.
All Children’s has posted more drowning prevention information on its website.