2-Year-Old Boy Drowns in Pool in Costa Mesa

A 2-year-old boy drowned in a swimming pool Monday after he ventured into the back yard while his mother was using the telephone, authorities said.

The boy, whose name was withheld, was found by his mother face-down in the pool at the family’s home on Cortez Street, said Lt. Tom Warneck.

The mother had been on the phone when she noticed that her son was missing, Warneck said. She then saw that a sliding glass door that led to the pool area was open. She went outside and found her son in the pool, he said.

“She jumped in the pool and grabbed the child, then ran to the phone and called 911,” he said.

Paramedics took the boy to College Hospital Costa Mesa, where he was pronounced dead at 10:55 a.m.

In the past six weeks, five children in Orange County have drowned in either swimming pools or hot tubs.

“It’s going to be a rough (summer),” said Dr. Ralph Rucker, director of pulmonary services at Childrens Hospital of Orange County.

Rucker noted that it takes just seconds for a parent to lose sight of a child as he or she heads toward a pool.

“Babies die very silently and very quickly,” he said.