Boy Nearly Drowns at LBHS Pool

This story was updated at 4:15 p.m. on 7.11.13.

A 7-year-old boy nearly drowned while in a pool at Long Beach High School on Wednesday afternoon.

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The Point Lookout-Lido Fire Department received a call about a drowning at the pool at about 4 p.m., said PLLFD Chas Thompson, who arrived on the scene after a lifeguard had pulled the youth from the pool.

At the time of the incident an estimated 50 children were in the pool, some who were wearing tags that allowed them to swim and other without tags that weren’t permitted in the pool, Thompson said. “Apparently this kid didn’t have a tag and somehow went into the water,” said Thompson, who was uncertain whether children were from Long Beach Recreation Center or another camp.

“The lifeguard saw a pair of short falling and saw a kid kind of going down to the bottom of the pool,” Thompson continued. “The lifeguard jumped in the pool, pulled him out, got him on the pool deck while another lifeguard called 911, and camp counselors got all of the other kids out of the pool and out of the area.

The lifeguard gave the boy four rounds of CPR before he vomited and was revived. When Thompson arrived on the scene he applied an oxygen mask to the child. “The kid was alert and responsive,” he said.

A Nassau County Police ambulance transported the boy to South Nassau Communities Hospital in Oceanside.

“All of the lifeguards followed procedure and did what they were supposed to and got the kid breathing and there was a happy ending,” Thompson said.

David Weiss, the superintendent of Long Beach School District, said that the near drowning occurred during the Long Beach Recreation afternoon camp swim sessions.

“They are using our facilities because the city pool is still closed,” Weiss said. “It is completely under their supervision with city lifeguards.”