Young Culver Girl Loses Struggle to Survive

A 16-month-old girl died at her Culver home Tuesday, two weeks after she fell into the family?s backyard swimming pool, Jefferson County sheriff?s deputies said Wednesday.

The girl had been on life support at Legacy Emanuel Medical Center since shortly after the incident, said Detective Starla Green.

Remaining under medical supervision, the girl and her family returned Tuesday to their Culver home, where she succumbed to her injuries shortly after 2 p.m., Green said.

Authorities did not release the name of the victim or family. Green said the sheriff?s office and state Department of Human Services-Child Welfare Division are still investigating the incident.

Sheriff?s dispatchers got a call around 7:40 p.m. Tuesday, July 26 from a Culver home, reporting a 1-year-old baby was not breathing, said Green.

When a sheriff?s deputy arrived, he found CPR being performed on the 16-month-old child, who had been pulled from a 3-foot-deep swimming pool, Green said.

The girl was flown by AirLink Legacy Emanuel Medical Center, where she was placed on life support, Green said.

An investigation found ?the child was unsupervised for a very short period of time,? Green said in a news release, ?and within that time, the child made it to the backyard pool.?

?It is possible that the child was under water approximately three to five minutes before being found by her mother,? the detective continued.

The child was pulled from the pool, and CPR was started by family and neighbors before being turned over to arriving medics.

Green said the pool is about three feet deep, with a ladder in place to access it.

She called it ?a tragic reminder to the public to take extra safety measures if you have a swimming or wading pool on your property where children have access to it.?

?Make sure swimming pools and bodies of water are secured when not supervised,? Green wrote. ?Ensure gate or door accesses to the pools are secure, to where small children are not able to get through to gain access to the body of water.?

?And when the children are in the pool,,? she said, ?make sure that they are constantly supervised.?

?This is a tragic incident that should not have occurred, so please take the extra precautionary steps to keep your children safe,? Green said.