Dad Breathes Air Into Son Trapped Underwater For 7 Minutes(Drain Trapped)

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.local6.com/news/9554448/detail.html

A 14-year-old who was sucked to the bottom of a hotel hot tub and kept under water for at least seven minutes was likely saved by air his father breathed into his mouth during the ordeal.

Aljuwon Pipkin, who was visiting Walt Disney World from New Jersey, became stuck at the bottom of the hot tub last Thursday at the Radisson Parkway Hotel.

Officials said a grate at the bottom of the tub apparently broke and created a strong suction that pulled the teen underwater.

Pipkin's father was at the pool and noticed his son stuck at the bottom of the hot tub.

"I get chills now even speaking about it," father Sharif Pipkin said. "I was truly a traumatic moment. I figured he was at the bottom and they just couldn't pull him up and then he didn't come up. And, I pulled again and he didn't come up. I began to holler for help from people."

I posted this because it reminds me of the case John Edwards prosecuted against a drain manufacturer. Thank goodness this kid had a quick thinking dad and was didn't suffer the terrible injury of Valerie Lakey. Scary that this is still a problem.

The Edwards Case: 5-year-old girl was disemboweled, but survived, after being caught and suctioned by wading pool's defective drain. Despite 12 prior suits with similar claims, manufacturer continued to make and sell drain covers lacking warnings.

http://news.findlaw.com/newsmakers/john.edwards.html

[benburch]

1. Seven minutes!

How could he have any brain cells left after that much time???????

[debbierlus]

2. The dad was breathing into him while he was under water

[Rabrrrrrr]

3. But wait - with names like Sharif and Aljuwon, they must be foreigners,

and quite likely Muslims - and I thought, according to our republican leadership, that foreigners - especially Muslims - HATE their children, and often eat them?

I can't believe that one would actually save one of their children.

Something is wrong in this story - I bet the LIEberal media made it up, to give comfort and aid to our enemies.

[PA Democrat]

4. Glad to hear this story had a happy ending,

thanks to his dad's quick thinking.

[htuttle]

5. Wow -- that works?

I've seen that in movies, but always doubted that it would actually work to breath air into someone else's mouth.

Good to know, I guess.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

9. Makes sense. Severely depleted air is way better than no air. -nt

[michreject]

12. I'm confused

I thought a person displaced carbon dioxide.:shrug: I could be wrong though.

[nealmhughes]

13. Exhaling the dad's breath would have indeed, been mostly CO2.

But the father could well have just blown out regular 20% oxygenated air without too much CO2 in it.

Breaking vacuum is very, very hard and the higher the water level in the hot tub, the stronger the vacuum. I have seen some incredible things from draining piping systems with a great deal of head to the pipe run before the vent valve was opened...

[Robb]

14. Not entirely

At sea level, air is about 20% oxygen. A typical breath will extract about 4%, leaving 16% residual in that exhaled breath.

[daleo]

16. Famous scene from Sometimes a Great Notion, I think. n/t

[Crunchy Frog]

21. What do you think mouth to mouth resuscitation is?

Exactly the same thing.

[htuttle]

23. Good point

Never thought about it that way.

[Breeze54]

6. Wow!!

Quick thinking by the Dad!!! :thumbsup:

I'm glad you posted this!
It's a good reminder, in the summertime, to parents traveling!

[ThomCat]

7. Wow. I am very glad this ended well.

That's damned scary.

You just know that kid is going to have quite an appreciation for his Dad forever. This will keep his teen rebellion in check for a few years.

[IADEMO2004]

8. Escalators have emergency stop buttons, why not hot tubs?

[RamboLiberal]

11. They probably do but not where public knows about

Would need this for swimming pools as well since drains have trapped people in pools as well. Bush Family Consigliore Jame Baker tragically lost his granddaughter to a spa drain. I found that ironic when the Bushbots were railing against that "evil" trial lawyer John Edwards and his "frivolous" lawsuits. Ironic in this May 06 story that Baker is aligning with Dem Rep Debbie Wasserman Schultz to protect kids against these drains. Why isn't a Repuke sponsoring?

James A. Baker, III, Secretary of State under former President George Bush, and daughter-in-law Nancy Baker are supporting new legislation expected to be introduced shortly in connection with Safe Kids Week that would offer incentive grants to states that pass laws requiring safeguards to prevent drowning, drain entrapment and entanglement in swimming pools and spas.

Baker’s granddaughter, Virginia Graeme Baker, died four years ago when she became entrapped in the drain of a spa. It took several adults to help pry her free from the force of the drain, but it was to no avail. She had drowned. This tragedy occurred at a graduation party that was well supervised by scores of adults.

“We were absolutely devastated. Graeme was an angel on loan to us for seven years,” said Mr. Baker. “Before it happened I didn’t think it was possible that a child could be entrapped in the drain of a spa. I’m here to say it is possible, but it is absolutely preventable with the installation of safeguards as well as awareness by parents and pool owners.”

Secretary Baker spoke publicly for the first time about his granddaughter at the National Safe Kids Week kick-off event at the U.S. Capitol Reflecting Pool. “We hope Graeme’s story and the passage of this new legislation will help save lives.”

The proposed legislation to be introduced by U.S. Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) is modeled after a law, enacted in 2000, which she sponsored as a state legislator in her home state of Florida.

http://www.usa.safekids.org/tier3_cd.cfm?content_item_id=22070&folder_id=300


Left to right: Dr. Martin R. Eichelberger, president and CEO of Safe Kids Worldwide, James A. Baker III, former Secretary of State, Nancy Baker, mother of Graeme Baker, Bob Daretta, Vice Chairman of Johnson & Johnson, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL), Diana Goldberg, Chairman of the Board of Safe Kids Worldwide and Edwin K. Zechman Jr., president and CEO of Children’s National Medical Center

[Xipe Totec]

10. Let there be no question that fathers also love their children n/t

[redqueen]

15. "disemboweled"... jesus

:(

[JVS]

18. Speaking of disembowlment, this story reminds me of a Chuck...

Palahniuk's short story "Guts"

[RamboLiberal]

19. More on the Lakey Case - Read Edwards book 4 Trials

On a summer evening in 1993, David Lakey took his little girl swimming at a recreation center in Raleigh, N.C. Valerie Lakey was 5 years old, a good swimmer, and she and her friends liked to splash around in the children's wading pool that stayed open a little later than the big pool where they usually swam.

That's what Valerie was doing when a nearby mom heard her call out for help. Valerie was sitting on the bottom of the shallow pool, and the suction from the drain was holding her down. David Lakey raced to free his daughter but couldn't. Other parents jumped in the water to help, but they couldn't get Valerie loose. Valerie was scared, and she began to say that her stomach hurt.

Time passed, and somebody figured out how to turn off the pool's pump. The suction broke, and Valerie was released from its grip. But as David Lakey pulled his daughter from the water, blood and tissue filled the pool. Valerie's intestines had been sucked out.

David Lakey slumped to the ground on the side of the pool. He held his daughter on his chest, praying as they waited for an ambulance. Over and over, he told Valerie, "Daddy loves you. Daddy loves you. Daddy loves you."

This account of what happened to Valerie Lakey comes from "Four Trials," the book John Edwards wrote last year as he prepared to run for the presidency. Edwards represented Valerie in a lawsuit against the company that made the drain cover in that swimming pool. A jury awarded her $25 million, compensation for a life of intravenous feedings and colostomy bags.

http://stevegilliard.blogspot.com/2004/07/lets-make-war-on-trial-lawyers-who.html

A little snippet from Jan 06.

Valerie Lakey will turn 18 this month, 121/2 years since a loose cover allowed the drain’s suction to disembowel her. After years of surgery and treatment, a routine — school, piano lessons, birthday parties — slowly developed in her life. But no parent wants to imagine parts of the routine — nights attached to feeding tubes, the constant risk of infections and organ failures. “She’s in a lot of pain,” her mother says. “She’s got permanent injuries that are going to affect her the rest of her life.”

http://www.businessnc.com/archives/2006/01/athwart_torts.html

[SoCalDem]

17. Perhaps hotels will start keeping some coiled plastic tubing

handy in case that happens again.. even a garden hose would be helpful... That was a fast-thinking Dad..

[RamboLiberal]

20. Since this is from Rep Debbie Wasserman Schultz speech

figure I can post a large snippet on the tragic death of James Baker's (yes that James Baker) 7 year old granddaughter. I find it ironic that it's a Democrat that is sponsoring this. Why isn't James Baker pulling Republican strings? Figure he could get it passed in a heartbeat!

First a snippet of interest - note this is same manufacturer John Edwards sued in Valerie Laskey case - guess they didn't learn the lesson though this time they were involved with the pump. Thought Republicans didn't file these frivolous suits.

<snip>

Eventually, the Bakers would file a lawsuit against Hayward Pool Products, the manufacturer of the drain cover; Sta-Rite, the maker of the pool pump; and the pool service company that maintained the spa. In late 2004, Sta-Rite settled for an undisclosed amount. No court date has been set for the trial against the other two companies.

http://www.poolspanews.com/2006/032/032baker.html

Info on another lawsuit against Sta-Rite on defect in pump.

A Dade County jury determined Aug. 1 that a Sta-Rite single-horsepower pump was responsible for trapping Lorenzo Peterson underwater for several minutes. The incident caused the boy to suffer irreversible brain damage. He now lives in a permanent vegetative state and is under 24-hour medical care.

The Peterson family, from North Miami, Fla., claimed in its lawsuit that the pump was unsafe and Sta-Rite made no effort to modify the design to make it less dangerous or to warn distributors about risks it caused for swimmers, said Michael Haggard, the Miami-based lead attorney for the Petersons.

<snip>

Peterson was the 21st person to be involved in a lawsuit against Sta-Rite in the last 23 years. Several of the lawsuits were inherited by Sta-Rite when it acquired a California company called SwimQuip in 1980. Peterson's case was not the first large damage award the Delavan company encountered as a result of a pool accident.

In 1997, a Raleigh, N.C., jury awarded $25 million in compensatory damages to the family of then 9-year-old Valerie Lakey, who lost most of her intestines after sitting down in a children's wading pool and getting stuck to the drain. Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.), a 2004 presidential candidate, was the lawyer for the Lakey family.

Also in 1997, Sta-Rite, in cooperation with the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, recalled 135,000 pool pumps because of faulty inlet fittings.

http://milwaukee.bizjournals.com/milwaukee/stories/2003/08/11/story4.html

From Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz's(D) speech on Baker's granddaughter's death:
<snip>

Two and a half years ago, on a hot June day, 7-year-old Virginia Graeme Baker, granddaughter of former Secretary of State, James Baker went with her mother, Nancy, and four sisters to a family friend’s home for a graduation party.

Graeme, as she was affectionately known, had worn her swimsuit to the party and jumped in the pool as soon as they arrived.

Shortly after, Graeme’s older sister ran up to Nancy and told her that Graeme was underwater in the hot tub and would not come up. Nancy raced to the spa, but could not find Graeme in the hot tub’s dark water and thick bubbles.

What she did next is what I know any mother would do. Nancy jumped into the hot tub to save her child.

Sadly, she found her daughter lying unconscious on the bottom of the spa. She threw her arms down into the water to pull Graeme up, but could not wrench her from the bottom.

As she desperately yanked, two men jumped in and grabbed Graeme’s ankles, they had to pull so hard to release Graeme that they broke the drain cover.

Emergency units arrived immediately and performed CPR, but Graeme could not be revived. She was flown to Fairfax Hospital in Virginia , but it was too late. Graeme was pronounced dead.

It wasn’t until the police report came out, that Nancy discovered what happened: Graeme’s hip or buttock had become suctioned to the hot tub’s drain.

Graeme Baker, a child of one of the most prominent families in America , was the victim of suction entrapment.

As with most pool and hot tub drownings, the fact that her death was entirely preventable makes the loss that much more tragic and infuriating.

Despite the enormity of this tragedy, Nancy Baker overcame it! She committed herself to ensuring that this never happens to another child and embarked on a crusade to improve pool safety.

Nancy shared Graeme’s story across America and testified before the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission on the need for improved safety measures in pools and hot tubs.

Nancy is here with us today and I’d like to recognize her for her great courage and tremendous resilience.

http://www.house.gov/schultz/speeches/sp060127_poolsafety.html

[NVMojo]

22. wow, what a hero that father is ...

[uppityperson]

24. I call few people "hero" but this father qualifies, in my estimation.

Good job for the father and for the son to not panic but work together!