Countywide : Mother Tells of How She Saved Her Drowning Twin Babies

Susan Caldwell will never forget the day in October, 1992, when she noticed it was strangely quiet at her Placentia home. A screen door she thought was locked had been pushed open, and her twin boys--just days shy of their first birthday--had fallen into the back-yard pool.

“I could see both of them floating unconscious in the water,” said Caldwell, who scooped up her limp children and screamed out to the neighbors for help.

There was no reply.

She ran into the house, dialed 911, and was told by the emergency dispatcher to tilt back her children’s heads and breathe air into their lungs.

Paramedics arrived about five minutes later, and Jonathan and Mychal were rushed to a local hospital.

“By that evening, they were back to their normal selves,” Caldwell said. “It was really a miracle.”

Caldwell volunteered to tell her story Monday at a mock-drowning rescue demonstration staged by the Santa Ana Fire Department and sponsored by the Drowning Prevention Network of Orange County.

The event was designed to warn parents about the danger of childhood drownings and to emphasize the importance of learning cardiopulmonary resuscitation.

The leading cause locally of death by injury among children under the age of 5 is pool drowning, according to Amy Dale of the Orange County Health Care Agency. Six such deaths were recorded in the county last year, she said, and 17 occurred in 1993.

Many more children are involved in near-drowning accidents, Dale pointed out, which can result in permanent and severe disabilities.

Health care officials are urging parents to take the following steps to prevent pool or spa accidents:

* Keep children away from the water by installing protective devices such as fences that cannot be climbed, self-closing and self-latching fence gates, door and window alarms, and pool safety covers.

* Assign an adult “water watcher” to supervise the pool or spa area.

* Take CPR and swimming lessons.

* Teach children how to use rescue equipment such as a lifesaving ring, and how to dial 911 for emergency help.