The Pool Safety Resource: The Commonsense Approach to Keeping Children Safe Around Water

By Geoff Dawson

This book will help parents understand the unique risks of their own pool environment and how to build a robust system of protection.

When the Roisum family moved to Florida in 2005 they decided to install a new pool in their back yard. Everyone was excited about the aquatic fun they would enjoy for years to come. It was just another day in March when Jenna, kissed her 2 year old son Mason goodbye as she left for work. Not long after, Mason found his way to the pool and drowned. Every year, hundreds of children and infants fall victim to accidental drowning accidents that are preventable with proper precautions.

In The Pool Safety Resource, author and pool safety consultant Geoff Dawson guides parents and pool owners through the dangers and risks and helps them identify and make educated choices regarding swimming pools and other bodies of water. He offers realworld advice and solutions to help increase safety. He discusses

understanding, evaluating, and mitigating risks; building layers of protection; constructing a safe, new pool; providing aquatic survival skills and swimming lessons; establishing and communicating pool rules; enjoying the pool safely; preparing for emergencies; being a pool safety advocate.

Owning a pool is a huge responsibility, but the benefits to health, happiness, and family life are immeasurable. The Pool Safety Resource provides a wealth of information to help families enjoy their swimming pools safely.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Apr 20, 2011
• ISBN: 9781450294447

Geoff Dawson

Geoff Dawson is president of The Pool Safety Resource based in Orlando, Florida. He has been teaching infants to swim for more than eight years. Born in England, Dawson lived in five countries before settling in Orlando with his wife, Anna, and son, Philip.

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Copyright © 2011 by Geoff Dawson

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Disclaimer: Intended as a guide, The Pool Safety Resource makes no warranties as to the suitability of any product or advice for any specific situation. You should always consult with a professional and check your local building codes before choosing any solution. No warranties or performance standards are implied or intended. Any medical information stated is opinion only. Always consult with your doctor before taking swimming lessons of any kind.

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Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

ISBN: 978-1-4502-9443-0 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4502-9444-7 (ebook)

ISBN: 978-1-4502-9445-4 (dj)

Printed in the United States of America

iUniverse rev. date: 3/10/2011

Contents

Preface

Acknowledgments

Dedication

Chapter 1 The Problem of Childhood Drowning

Chapter 2 Understanding, Evaluating, and Mitigating Risks

Chapter 3 Building Up Layers of Protection

Chapter 4 Constructing a Safe New Pool

Chapter 5 Providing Aquatic Survival Skills and Swimming Lessons

Chapter 6 Establishing and Communicating Pool Rules

Chapter 7 Enjoying the Pool Safely

Chapter 8 Preparing for Emergencies

Be a Pool Safety Advocate

Additional Resources

Preface

Water is truly amazing stuff; every living creature depends on it to survive. For all of its benefits and life-giving qualities, though, water can just as easily turn deadly. Perhaps, however, its sheer abundance in our lives is what makes many of us nonchalant about the dangers it poses.

Every year, hundreds of children and infants in the United States fall victim to the allure of water—the majority in a swimming pool at their own home. Adults have learned to live with and enjoy water safely, for the most part. Children, on the other hand, can be easily distracted or lured to the side of a pool without being even minutely aware of the consequences.

For many people, pool safety is a hazy area of concern. Some don’t even recognize that a danger exists, perhaps forgetting that children don’t have the understanding of cause and effect that we adults do, even though they possess an insatiable curiosity. For others, the advice and products available to ensure pool safety are simply overwhelming and confusing; they have no idea which safety measures are appropriate for their particular situations.

In my travels as a pool safety consultant, I have found every home situation to be unique; for example, the layout of the pool, the surrounding deck and yard, the size of the family, and the family’s lifestyle will be different. The combination of these factors is never the same, and any pool safety solution must take all of these factors and more into account. Two families living in identical homes may require different solutions because of the number and age of the children and other lifestyle differences. Does the family have a lot of pool parties? Do the parents leave their children in the care of a sitter? Does the family have a dog?

Yes, owning a pool is a huge responsibility, but the benefits to health, happiness, and family life are equally immeasurable. People often ask me if I think families with young children should buy homes with pools, and my answer is always a resounding, Yes! If …; if the family is prepared to do what it takes to keep its members and visitors safe. Making sound choices when the safety and welfare of the family is at stake is a responsibility that adults can handle, given the right information. I am confident that, with this book, adults will have the tools necessary to protect their families and provide years of aquatic fun as a result.

Enjoy your safety, and enjoy your pool!

Geoff Dawson

Acknowledgments

Thank you to everyone who has helped me with advice, stories, and general support along the way: Alan Mowbray, technical editor; Kristen Manieri, editor; Lendy Chapman, Certified Child Life Specialist (CCLS), Florida Hospital; George A. Ralls, MD, Fellow of the American College of Emergency Physicians, Director, Health Services Department, and Medical Director, Orange County Emergency Medical Services System; Joy McGinty, director, South West Aquatics, Orlando, Florida; Kathy Baldwin, The Gift of Swimming, Orlando; Becky Puhl, Swim with Becky, Volusia County; Val Woldman and Tracy Hougham Photography, the parents, and the children who helped me capture the images that bring a book to life.

My special thanks to the Roisum family, who allowed me to share their story in the hope that it would save another family from having to go through what they go through every day since their son Mason’s accident. Their story reminds me that, behind every statistic, there is a family whose world has been turned upside down. It makes me work even harder to get this message out.

I could have spent another twelve months working on this book, but there is a time to draw a line and go to print. This book is a long way from perfect, and my work will continue to refine the message. If you have an experience or safety tip you would like to share for the next edition, please contact me via my website at

www.thepoolsafetyresource.com. I would especially like to expand the scope of the book to include pool safety issues and solutions outside the state of Florida.

Dedication

For Mason and the other children we did not reach in time.

missing image file

Mason Roisum 9/7/06 - 3/27/09

Chapter 1

The Problem of Childhood Drowning

Isn’t it ironic that doctors and scientists worldwide work around the clock, spending millions of dollars every year, to discover vaccines and treatments to prevent and cure the things that ail us, and yet as deadly as water can be, we don’t need a doctor or a scientist to find a cure for drowning? All we need is for every parent, caregiver, and pool owner to think and act responsibly to keep our children safe. Each and every one of us has the power to save lives from this unforgiving killer.

I was once called by a radio station to provide a pool safety perspective after four-year-old twins both fell into a pool after being left with their nine-year-old sibling. The older child had reentered the home, leaving the twins outside next to an unprotected pool. It is not known which child entered the pool first or whether they did so voluntarily or by accident. Both children were found in the pool. Neither survived.

Pick up a newspaper or surf the web on any given day and, chances are, you will read about a drowning or a near drowning. A typical report will describe a victim between one and four years of age who is usually in the care of a family member in his own home and who, after a breakdown in supervision, manages to find his way unnoticed to the pool area, where he is discovered just minutes later. How many seconds or minutes later this discovery occurs is the primary factor in determining whether the victim lives or dies.

According to the US Consumer Product Safety Commission, there were 4,200 emergency-department-treated submersion injuries per year (average between 2007 and 2009) and an average of 385 fatalities per year (average between 2005 and 2007).[1] This means that drowning is the number two ranking cause of accidental death in the United States as a whole. In eighteen states, it ranks number one. According to the Houston Chronicle, in 2009, more than one hundred children died in Texas alone.[2]

Survivors of a near drowning may have to live with varying consequences for the rest of their lives. These consequences can range from minimal motor-skill impairment to living in a vegetative state requiring round-the-clock care and feeding though tubes. Safe Kids USA estimates put the health care cost of drowning survivors around 16 billion dollars annually.[3]

Beyond the tragedy of the victim, a drowning or a near drowning destroys lives, marriages, friendships, careers, finances, and hopes for the future. There are no warnings and no developing symptoms. One minute, it’s a day like any other; the next, a world is turned upside down. Consider the following true story described by Mason’s mother, Jenna. She and her husband Paul moved to Florida in September 2005 and a few months later became pregnant with their first child. Jenna continues …

We purchased a house and settled in. Mason was not quite two when we decided to install an aboveground pool, looking forward to the family time we would be spending in the water. I have always been very safety conscience, and an aboveground pool was not only much more cost-effective, it just seemed safer. I researched safety devices and was able to find a fence/gate system that attaches to the walls of the pool extending them upwards another two feet. It was on my list of to-dos. But I wasn’t overly worried. Though our pool was partially inset, it was still just about as tall as our son—he couldn’t just fall in (even if he was running and tripped, he wouldn’t fall in). Besides, I thought, we NEVER leave him alone in the backyard and God forbid something happen, we both know CPR and one or both of us is always right here. I will order it as soon as we get our tax refund.

It was 1:12 p.m. on a beautiful day in March when I kissed my son goodbye and headed for work. I turned to him and said, Oh, you better finish lunch up, you’re late, late, late for naptime. I waved good-bye, blew him another kiss, and off to work I went. That was the last time I would see my little boy alive. It was a routine afternoon. My husband, Mason, and our dog were playing in the backyard. Our four-month-old was asleep for her last nap of the day. When she awoke they all trotted in to get her but, for some reason, my husband didn’t close the door behind him. During the few moments it took to get our little girl up, Mason and the dog ran back outside. My husband’s ears perked up, but he wasn’t overly concerned. He was heading right back out there and Mason didn’t go near the pool. (He was afraid of the big pool.) Besides, it was an above-ground pool with no ladder. When it suddenly became quiet my husband glanced outside, expecting to see