Simi Child Hospitalized After Falling Into Pool

A 3-year-old Simi Valley boy almost drowned Thursday afternoon after falling into the family swimming pool while riding a tricycle in his Lathrop Avenue backyard, authorities said.

Michael Schlagenhauser was in the pediatric intensive care unit at Valley Presbyterian Hospital in Van Nuys. The boy’s father requested his condition not be released, a hospital spokeswoman said.

Michael had apparently been underwater two or three minutes in a dirty algae-covered pool that was unused because it was damaged in the Northridge earthquake, said Capt. Kerry Ellison of the Ventura County Fire Department.

“When we got there, he wasn’t breathing,” he said, adding that paramedics resuscitated the toddler before rushing him, still unconscious, to Simi Valley Hospital.

Michael had apparently slipped out of the house while his mother was in another room, said Sgt. Gordon Weeks of the Simi Valley Police Department. He apparently rode his tricycle near the pool and caught a wheel on a piece of filtration equipment, Ellison said.

A neighbor heard cries for help and alerted the boy’s mother. Two neighbors joined the boy’s mother in a frantic search of the dirty pool water that ranged from 4 to 7 feet deep. One of the neighbors discovered the boy and pulled him out.

“There’s no neglect or negligence on anybody’s part, it’s just an accident,” Weeks said.

Dr. Cassandra Stroud, an emergency room physician at Valley Presbyterian Hospital, warned that accidental drownings increase during the summer, and that children can drown in as little as a bucket of water.

“Parents with small children, they need to keep any type of water away and closed off,” Stroud said.