- April 16, 2024
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A 10-month-old girl crawled into a pool at a Palm Coast home and drowned Thursday, April 26, according to the Flagler County Sheriff's Office.
"The family told the deputy that the mother was cooking in the kitchen," Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Brittany Kershaw said. "Because they were cooking, they opened the back door to air out the house, and ... the 10-month-old crawled out of the house and into the pool."
The call came in to the Sheriff's Office's dispatch center at 4:33 p.m. from a home at 121 Edward Drive. The girl's mother, Nigora Ayupova, was a nurse and told dispatchers that the girl, Aishas Umar, had a pulse but was not breathing.
Ayupova began CPR. Deputies, who were nearby investigating a burglary at 111 Edward Drive, arrived and continued CPR and used an automated external defibrillator until Flagler County Fire Rescue units paramedics arrived on Rescue Unit 92 and Engine 92 and took over, according to an FCSO case report.
Paramedics took the girl to Florida Hospital Flagler, where she was pronounced dead.
The drowning occurred about two years after the last child drowning in Palm Coast, which happened on April 24, 2016, when a 2-year-old drowned in a pool on Fort Caroline Lane, according to the FCSO.
The Sheriff's Office, Kershaw said, is encouraging families to seek water safety training for young children as summer approaches.
Flagler County Emergency Services is holding WaterSafe 2018, a free, three-hour water safety event for children from infants to age 9, from 9 a.m. to noon Saturday, April 28 at the Belle Terre Swim & Racquet Club at 73 Patricia Lane, Palm Coast.
“Water safety is critical for children in Florida because of our weather and the number of swimming pools and other natural water resources we have," Emergency Management Chief Jonathan Lord said in an April 19 news release from the county government about WaterSafe 2018.
Drowning, according to the county government news release, is the leading cause of injury-related death for children under 4 years old and the third leading cause of injury-related death for children under 19.
