A child under 30 pounds can drown in the time it takes you to text, ?Pool party starts at noon, don?t forget to bring towels and sunscreen.? And on a gorgeous, sunny Father?s Day spent at my local pool, I almost learned this the hard way when I saved the life of a 22-month-old.
Soon after cozying up on an outdoor sofa, I was distracted by three little boys zooming around our gigantic inground community pool on tricycles. Even with their life jackets, I had a bad feeling that one of them was going to accidentally ride into the pool, so I began watching them closely, because though there were tons of adults around, not one had their eyes fixed on the boys.
Then, my fear became reality as I witnessed the youngest take a corner too wide and skid out, flipping into the hot tub. The boy was fully submerged under water, trapped between the hot tub seat and his large plastic tricycle, which was too heavy for him to push off. All you could see was one tiny foot flailing in the air, a couple inches above the water, as he fought to save his own life.
I took off running across the courtyard as fast as I could, fully expecting someone to have pulled him out by the time I got there. But no one even noticed, and if you?d missed him flip into the water, it would have just looked like a floating toy.

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