Currently, Texas is leading the nation in the number of drowning accidents involving children. Particularly, Harris County is the most frequent location of child related drownings.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), there is an annual average of 3,536 fatal unintentional drownings in the United States. Approximately, one in five fatal drownings involve children 14 and younger. Many unintentional drownings involving children that don’t result in death usually require emergency services for submersion injuries.
More than half of the children treated in emergency department for unintentional drownings require hospitalization and transfers for further treatment. Nonfatal drownings can result in severe brain damage that may cause long-term learning, memory, and basic functioning disabilities. Increased adult supervision, pool barriers to keep children out when no one is watching and educating children at an early age can help to keep that number from rising.
On October 14, 2019, a four-year-old girl slipped away from adults attending a ceremony and into a man-made pond on the premises. Firefighters ultimately found her at the bottom of the pond about 15 minutes later.
In July 2019, a family in the Katy, Texas area filed a lawsuit against their home association after their six-year-old son drowned in an overcrowded community pool that was not adequately monitored by lifeguards.
Also, in July 2019, a mother filed a $25 million lawsuit against an apartment complex in Texas city for the drowning of her son in an unsecured pond on the premises.
When a pool owner fails to secure its premises and a child dies in a drowning accident, a surviving parent may bring an action against the property owner in a wrongful death case. If you or someone you know has been injured by the negligence of others, contact an attorney at Abraham, Watkins, Nichols, Agosto, Aziz & Stogner by calling (713) 222-7211 or toll free at 713-222-7211.