Boy Rescued in Pool Dies at Hospital

A 19-month-old boy who was rescued from a backyard swimming pool earlier this week died Wednesday afternoon at Northridge Hospital Medical Center, a hospital spokeswoman said.

Nathan Powell--the only child of a Chino couple--was declared brain dead at 4:18 p.m. Wednesday. His parents said they would donate the boy’s organs, said hospital spokesman Andrea Bogdan.

“Their sole source of comfort,” Bogdan said, “was that they chose to donate their son’s major organs so that another child could live.”

Authorities say the boy and his parents were in Northridge to visit his grandparents when he apparently wandered out of their house in the 18000 block of Mayall Street.

Authorities said the boy may have been chasing a basketball when he fell into the water. The pool was fenced off to outsiders, but a police detective said the boy probably walked out a side door that led to the pool.

Los Angeles Police Officer Patrick Cronnin arrived at the house, spotted the boy in the pool and dived in to pull him out. Paramedics rushed the boy to Northridge Hospital Medical Center, where he was in critical condition until his death.