Splash Day 2017: Parents, Kids Get Lessons in Water Safety

Nationwide, there are 350 drowning deaths of children under the age of 5 each year, and there are another 2,600 children being treated in emergency rooms for near-drowning incidents, according to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC).

These are sobering statistics that cause fear in every parent. However, almost all of these accidents are preventable just by following a few safety rules at home, where 65 percent of these accidents happen. According to Gerald Little, co-owner of Little Swimmers, “alarms on the doors, the windows, having a pool fence and swimming lessons” should be the first steps in creating a safe-pool environment.

At this year’s Water Safety Splash Day event, sponsored by West Kendall Baptist Hospital and Baptist Children’s Hospital, the group from Little Swimmers came out to provide basic swim lessons and evaluations, perform a mock drowning to show how quickly it can happen, and gave CPR demonstrations. Mr. Little believes that “every parent should know CPR,” not just for the swimming aspect, but because other accidents can and do happen around the home.

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[Transcript]

[Splash Day 2017, Presented By West Kendall Baptist Hospital]

(whistle blows)
[A man rushes into the pool with his son to perform a water rescue drill]

Gerald Little:
At Little Swimmers and West Kendall Baptist Hospital, our partners in this event also Miami-Dade fire rescue. And our goal is to spread the word of drown prevention.

[Participants young and old train to perform CPR]

Zulma Berrios:
We are in a community that it's so light year round, so we're going to be around the bodies of water, year round. So we don't want to limit this just to be for the 100 days of summer with the vision that I hope that someday I can say we didn't have any drowning in our community.

Gerald Little:
Every parent should know CPR off the bat. Not even just because of the swimming aspect, but at home there's things that happen. You have little ones running around and God forbid they choke on something. But you can teach a 12 year old and up CPR. The earlier you are the better,

Zulma Berrios:
These type of events for the community cannot be fulfilled if it's not for the commitment of a great organization like West Kendall Baptist, Hospital, and Baptist health, South Florida,

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[End Transcript]