4-Year old at WI Dells Resort drowns while lifeguard looks on

[PghLybrt]

This poor child.

Unfortunately I can see why the lifeguard would have to ask. People do get extremely angry. A few years back I was at a resort and I was the designated sit with the infant person. So I was hanging out with my new nephew at the side of the pool while everybody else was having a good time(honestly so was I he was so cute…and public pools, not my thing). There was a couple in front of me with a 3-4 year old. He had slipped face down into the water and was obviously struggling. (Years of being an actual lifegaurd, you just know) I yelled to the parents (because I could not leave an infant) but they didn’t even notice. A few second more I just went right in an scooped him up. The parents were furious, wanted me kicked out of the resort. Basically I embarrassed them in front of everybody. But there little boy was choking and crying and obviously scared by his experience. I was thanked by everyone except the parents.

 

[DisneyMommyMichelle]

Lifeguards are not a replacement for parents to supervise their small children.

EXACTLY!

 

[Free4Life11]

My guess is that it's not the rule that they have to ask but the supervisor is probably a complete jerk who yells at them for false calls because "it upsets the guess." Either that or we have a lifeguard with no backbone. This really isn't a situation where you can be concerned with people who will get mad...to hell with them. They can suck it up and move on with their miserable lives.

Personally, the girls at our pool seem more interest in tanning than paying attention to what's going on.

 

[swilphil]

If it isn't bad enough that the lifeguard had to check with the supervisor, the supervisor told the lifeguard "no" TWICE. What kind of operation is going on there?

 

[kctwinmommy]

There's already another thread, 2 actually, about this topic. Someone knows this little boy and his family. In addition, we were there that night!!! We were at the resort for the weekend, but never heard a word about it. I do have some issues with the resort now too. After reading this story, and what happened to my friend while we were there, I've been considering writing a letter to them expressing my concerns. My friend's 2 1/2 year old son got a cut while they were out at one of the pools. She went and asked a lifeguard for a bandaid, the guy had NO IDEA what she was talking about!! Since thye hire internationally, apparently a lot of these resort areas do, his English was somewhat limited. And he did not know what a bandaid was!!! She was so mad and had to get another employee from somewhere to go through his fanny pack and find one!!

We had a good weekend, my kids had fun, but after hearing about this, and what happened while we were there, I don't know if we'd go back there again.

 

[sha_lyn]

She went and asked a lifeguard for a bandaid, the guy had NO IDEA what she was talking about!! Since thye hire internationally, apparently a lot of these resort areas do, his English was somewhat limited. And he did not know what a bandaid was!!! She was so mad and had to get another employee from somewhere to go through his fanny pack and find one!!

Band-aid is a brand name. It is very likely that even someone very fluent in English wouldn't know what you were talking about unless they were American, or have spent an extended amount of time in the US.

According to one of the other threads, the Dad was depending on a sibbling to watch the 4 yr old

 

[Toby'sFriend]

wow. I am just speechless.

All I have to say is that if there were ANY signs of someone struggling in a pool or things not looking/feeling right, we HAD to jump in and do whatever necessary to help out.

me too.
I can't even imagine. Tragedies happen all the time but this seems almost surreal.

It has been over 20 years and I can still recite

"When in doubt, get them OUT."

and

"As safely as possible, as quickly as possible."

I was 15 years old, but if that was my area -- I didn't ask anybody before I took action.

 

[ZachnElli]

I have serious issues with this resort. Yes, the parents should be right there, but sometimes things happen to even the best of parents. That's why there are lifeguards. This wouldn't even be an issue IF the lifeguard hadn't seen him, but they did and were told to do nothing. I remember going to our local neighborhood pool as a kid and my nephew almost drowned. 3 adults and 3 other kids and none of us noticed he was missing until the soaking wet lifeguard asked if we were missing someone. He jumped in and saved him. No one even noticed the lifeguard dive in let alone that a little boy was struggling.

 

[hentob]

Although I think the life guard should have jumped in the moment he suspected something was wrong, the parents should have been right next to their child at all times. A four yr old child should be supervised every second in a pool.

Every single second That poor little boy

 

[robinb]

There's already another thread, 2 actually, about this topic.

I'm sorry! I didn't see the other threads. It's much harder when the search feature is still broken. Can you post the links?

You're right about the lifeguards. Many of them were young International students. The Dells has been famous for that for many, many years. They actually recruit kids in other countries and pay for them to come to the Dells to work since there are not enough Wisconsin kids who want to do the job. It smacks of indentured servitude or the old coal mines (I owe my soul to the company store ...) the way they charge the kids for every little thing.

 

[roseprincess]

Robinb-
Thanks for posting the article.

So sorry to hear about the boy So sad .

I had heard about a drowning a year or two ago at the Polynesian Resort at the Dells, at their indoor waterpark. Please, not to be confused with the Poly at WDW.
It is so sad to hear about these drownings

I stay away from these big resorts at the Dells, scares the heck out of me
When we go to the Dells, my family and I stay at the small to medium resorts, where they have a small water play area with slides. Not the big waterpark places. I prefer staying at the Grand Marquis hotel or the Carousel Inn hotel at the Dells. These hotels have much smaller water areas. I watch my children at all times at the water play areas and pool.
The crowds are alot less than at these big resorts at the Dells.

I know the marketing for these big waterpark resorts draws in tons of families, but for me and my family,we prefer the smaller resorts, hotels, for safety reasons as well.

I didn't know about the lifeguard situation at the Dells. That stinks that some of these lifeguards can't understand English?

 

[kctwinmommy]

Band-aid is a brand name. It is very likely that even someone very fluent in English wouldn't know what you were talking about unless they were American, or have spent an extended amount of time in the US.

According to one of the other threads, the Dad was depending on a sibbling to watch the 4 yr old

True, but I think it's still a pretty common term. And she was trying to explain what had happened, that he got cut, and even the other employee was describing it to him, and he was still clueless! That's when she went into his fanny pack and got it out. I think that's very irresponsible, I don't think it's that far of a term, IMO.

 

[C.Ann]

According to one of the other threads, the Dad was depending on a sibbling to watch the 4 yr old

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I'm not sure "depending on" is the correct phrase.. If I remember correctly the two children were together and the dad looked away for a minute or less - which is really all it takes..

There have been cases where children have drowned when the parents were in the pool with the them and I think it's sad that everyone here - without further information - are just automatically assuming the parents were negligent in this child's death..

 

[shortbun]

I'm wondering where the kid's parents were too?

Yep, my son is 11 and I still keep an eye on him in the water.

 

[U2_rocks!]

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I'm not sure "depending on" is the correct phrase.. If I remember correctly the two children were together and the dad looked away for a minute or less - which is really all it takes..

There have been cases where children have drowned when the parents were in the pool with the them and I think it's sad that everyone here - without further information - are just automatically assuming the parents were negligent in this child's death..

I was going by the part of the story that claimed that the lifeguard noticed the child floating, and had the time to TWICE ask the supervisor if to go in the pool. We're not talking about a few seconds here. There was time for the boy to get so into trouble that he was already floating lifelessly, and there was obviously time for the lifeguard to take a few seconds to look, figure out there was a problem and ask his supervisor .... and then watch some more, and ask the supervisor again! Meanwhile, whichever parent was supposed to be watching was clueless!

I know these things can happen pretty quickly, which is why I don't like my kids to be in crowded swimming situations - it's too easy to lose track of them and not notice if they are struggling. It just seemed amazing to me that all this could be going on without the parents having a clue until it was too late. But I guess under some conditions it can happen. It makes me even more concerned about busy waterparks.

 

[The Mystery Machine]

As a boater, you need to use lifejackets on young kids in a wave pool.
A parent keeping constant supervision is not good enough. If your child is not a strong swimmer they should wear a lifejacket, period.