2-YEAR-OLD CHILD FOUND IN SWIMMING POOL

2-YEAR-OLD CHILD FOUND IN SWIMMING POOL

A 2-year-old boy was hospitalized on Saturday after stumbling into a backyard swimming pool.

The Volusia County Sheriff’s Office was dispatched to 1133 Glenwood Road near DeLand at about 5 p.m. on Saturday, after the child was found in his grandparents’ swimming pool. The toddler, Elijah Eckhardt, lives with his family next door to his grandparents and apparently wandered away from his house and ended up next door. An older sibling removed the child from the pool, but he was unresponsive.

Paramedics with Volusia County Fire Services and EVAC ambulance rushed to the scene to tend to the child, who was then transported by ambulance to Florida Hospital DeLand. The child was resuscitated and then prepared to be transferred by helicopter to Florida Hospital South in Orlando for additional medical treatment.

Update 2/27/11 - 1:00 p.m.

The father of the victim was with the child and other siblings earlier in the day on Saturday. He put Elijah down for a nap at about 2:30 p.m., and then after the mother returned home, the father left for an appointment. Shortly before 5 p.m., the mother was about to start dinner preparations and went to wake up Elijah, at which time she noticed he was gone. The mother and siblings immediately started searching for the boy around the family compound, which is a large plot of land with four home sites where other family members, including the grandparents, live. A 10-year-old brother found Elijah in their grandparents’ swimming pool and removed him from the water. It’s unknown how long the child was in the pool.

Medical personnel were able to resuscitate Elijah, but he was on life support and in critical condition at the time he was airlifted Saturday night to Florida Hospital in Orlando. He was pronounced dead at 10:46 a.m. Sunday morning at the hospital.

Nothing suspicious has been observed in the investigation and the Sheriff’s Office is treating the death as accidental.