Boy, 5, Drowns Amid a Crowd at Tustin Pool

More than a dozen people beating the summer heat at a Tustin apartment complex’s swimming pool didn’t notice as a 5-year-old boy slipped beneath the water and drowned beside them, police said Tuesday.

Brandon Valenti remained underwater for up to five minutes Monday evening before neighbors dived in and pulled him out, according to fire officials and eyewitnesses. The boy emerged unconscious and without a pulse. After attempts to revive him failed, he was taken to Western Medical Center-Santa Ana, where he was pronounced dead.

Brandon is believed to be the fifth child to drown in the county this year. Orange County Fire Authority Capt. Scott Brown said his death underscores the need for adults to carefully watch children when they swim, noting that child drownings frequently occur in crowded pools.

“It’s actually very common,” Brown said. “Each one of the last three or four incidents we’ve seen, that has been the pattern. . . . This needs to be a wake-up call right now. This can be prevented.”

Brown said at least one adult should be assigned to watching each young child. With a child as young as 5, he said, adult eyes should be following at all times. Another young child nearly drowned May 30 at a crowded community pool in Rancho Santa Margarita.

“It’s 100% preventable, but, also, pools and children are a very deadly combination,” Brown said.

Experts said it’s not surprising that swimmers in the Tustin pool didn’t notice Brandon slip underwater. Drownings involving young children are typically silent, even though most people expect kids to yell and flap their arms.

Children are less likely than adults to make noise when drowning, experts said, because they do not yet sense the danger.

“If you don’t see them going under the water, you’re not going to know they’re going under the water because they don’t make any sound,” said Mary Marlin, a nurse who runs the drowning-prevention program at Children’s Hospital of Orange County.

Still, some neighbors expressed shock that Brandon could drown with so many people in and around the pool.

“The water is kind of murky, but it’s amazing no one saw anything,” said Andrew Jones, 26, who lives above the apartment where Brandon lived with his mother, Christine Hernandez. “We’re just sad, period. I feel really bad for her.”

Police are investigating the incident at the Villa Viento Apartments. “Right now, it would appear to be an accidental drowning, but we won’t make that an absolute ruling until we have all the information in,” said Tustin Police Sgt. Bill Fisher.

Hernandez, the manager of the complex, was in her unit at the time of the accident and apparently had asked someone else to watch him, Fisher said.

Hernandez was reportedly staying with family members and could not be reached for comment Tuesday. Fisher said the boy’s father had not yet been notified.

Neighborhood children placed flowers in front of the mother’s apartment in a makeshift memorial to Brandon. On Tuesday, the swimming pool was placid and empty. The entrance was unlocked, but no one was swimming, despite the heat.

A sign near the gated swimming pool states that an adult must supervise minors using the pool. Fisher said he was told Brandon did not know how to swim, but he could not confirm that.

Child drownings in Orange County are declining, from a high of 21 in 1993 to nine in 1997. An alliance between the hospital and Orange County Fire Authority to educate the public about pool safety appears to be working, officials said.

When Marlin speaks to parents about pool safety, she emphasizes the point by saying she is going to play a tape recording of the sound of a child drowning.

“All the parents recoil,” she said. “When I put it on, of course, it’s blank because there is no sound.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Pool Drownings

The number of children who drowned in swimming pools in Orange County over the past six years:

1993: 21

1994: 10

1995: 10

1996: 16

1997: 9

1998: 5*

* Through Aug. 25

****

Here are some basic pool safety suggestions:

* Make sure all safety barriers are in place and in working order

* Keep cordless phone near pool for emergency use

* Designate someone to watch pool/spa whenever children are present

* Know infant/child CPR; make sure others watching children know rescue procedures

* Keep lifesaving ring and shepherd’s hook near pool

* Check pool first when child is missing

* Remove toys from pool area when not in use

Source: Orange County Fire Authority; Times reports