They yelled for the Emerald Pointe lifeguards, Hickey said. We never really found out what happened to him. Tony Brancazio, general manager of the water park, said he doesn't know anything about the involvement of Kosko and Berry in a rescue situation. It was our wake-up call, our reminder that life is a precious thing. There were 4,051 drownings in 1997 in the U.S., including 964 in children younger than 15.
Most children drown in swimming pools.
According to the Consumer Product Safety Commission, emergency departments reported that among kids younger than 5, about 320 fatal drownings in 1991 and 2,300 nonfatal near-drownings in 1993 occurred in residential swimming pools. Always be sure children are under constant adult supervision while in the water. This means the adult is not talking on the phone, playing cards or involved in any activity that distracts attention from the pool. Teach children to develop a buddy system so they are never alone in the pool. From the Center for Disease Control and Prevention Web site .