Boy, 6, Pulled Unconscious From Pool

A 6-year-old boy who was found at the bottom of a back-yard swimming pool in which he had been playing with four other children remained in critical condition Sunday night.

Adam Christopher Harris of Los Angeles was pulled from four feet of water at a home in the 200 block of Virginia Place, Costa Mesa Police Sgt. Loren Wyrick said.

Adam and his brother came to the Costa Mesa home Sunday morning with their neighbor, Javier Rangel, a Los Angeles parking lot attendant, and Rangel’s two children.

Rangel’s nephew, Carlos Montes, has rented the three-bedroom home for the past year, along with two cousins. Roberto Montes, 26, and Felipe Montes, 19. Several times since then, the three have invited friends and relatives over for barbecues and to swim in the home’s 15-by-30-foot pool.

During the late morning and early afternoon, Adam and four other children played in the pool as adults watched them from the back-yard barbecue area, said Carlos Montes, who works in a welding shop.

But around 1:50 p.m., one of the children ran to them and said that Adam was at the bottom of the pool, Montes said.

“The last we saw he was at the edge playing on the stairs,” Montes said. “The next thing we knew, he was in the middle of the pool, lying at the bottom. It was very rapid the way it happened.”

Rangel immediately jumped in the pool and pulled Adam out, Montes said. As others went to call an ambulance, Rangel tried to revive Adam by mouth-to-mouth resuscitation and by massaging the boy’s chest, but the boy didn’t respond, Montes said.

Paramedic Keith Fujimoto said that when he and three other paramedics arrived, the scene was “pandemonium.”

Adam was lying on the deck face down, he said. Paramedics then tried to revive him, but “he was already in cardiac and respiratory arrest,” Fujimoto said.

They then rushed him to College Hospital Costa Mesa, where doctors were able to restore a pulse, although Adam was still in a coma, he said.

Witnesses at the house said Adam could have been under water as long as three minutes, Fujimoto said. He added that Adam did not know how to swim and had been told to remain “on the edge of the pool.”

Montes estimated Sunday afternoon that Adam had been underwater no longer than 30 seconds judging by the last time an adult had glanced over at the pool area.

Fujimoto said that although so many adults were around, “something like that can happen so quickly.”

Adam was later transferred to Childrens Hospital of Orange County, where he remained in critical condition.

Fujimoto said children can experience brain damage after four to six minutes under water.

“It was real touch-and-go,” he said.

Montes described the boy as quiet and “very tranquil.” He said that this was Adam’s first visit to the Costa Mesa home.

Police contacted Adam’s parents later in the day, Wyrick said.

“We all feel bad here,” Montes said.

Since the beginning of the year, five children have drowned in swimming pools or hot tubs in Orange County. Drowning is a leading cause of death in the county among children under the age of 5.

“It’s very tragic, but it could happen to anyone,” said Elizabeth McGrail, a next-door neighbor.