Volunteers float life rings in St. Petersburg to push for pool safety

ST. PETERSBURG — The boys played in the back yard on scooters, their parents watching from the kitchen window.

It was August 2006, and the family had just moved from Boston to Florida. The swimming pool in the back of the family's Old Northeast home was surrounded by a gate. And Jud, who had turned 4 the day before, was afraid of the water.

What could happen?

Stacy Cummings glanced out the window, and for a split second, didn't see Jud. Panic washed over her.

"I just had this motherly feeling that something was wrong."

She and her husband dashed outside. The pool gate had not been locked.

Jud was at the bottom of the pool.

• • •

In the past 10 years in Florida, 744 children have drowned.

Most of the time, it happens in the safety of a home. Pinellas County alone has more than 65,000 backyard pools.

It happens to good families, people who watch their children and take safety precautions. But kids are mobile, and they fall through loopholes — the doggie door, the unhooked gate, the gap in the fence.

The approach of Memorial Day brings a new campaign called Florida Safe Pools. The goal is to promote swimming lessons, yes, but to really push for extra layers of protection between the child and the pool.

"Parents do watch their children," said Wendy Loomas, a co-chair of the campaign. "What they need is a little extra time, in case their child gets away from them."

Tuesday, representatives from St. Petersburg Fire and Rescue, the Pinellas County Health Department and All Children's Hospital gathered at St. Petersburg's North Shore Pool. They put 74 plastic floats in the water to represent the number of kids who drown in Florida each year.

"Drownings happen every single day," said St. Petersburg firefighter Pat Vines. "They don't take a break depending on the month."

The volunteers showed off new safety equipment, like childproof door locks, pool screens and alarms that sound when a child hits the water.

Fences should be at least 4 feet high, taller if possible, they advised. Have a phone by the pool. And parents should always be vigilant — don't text or talk on the phone or read a novel.

"Our campaign is all about the layer of barriers that families need," said Jean Shoemaker, Safe Kids coordinator at All Children's Hospital. "We've seen too many children who have gotten into the pool and ended up in a less-than-positive situation."

• • •

The image of her son at the bottom of the pool is one Stacy Cummings can't forget.

"It will never leave my mind," she said.

She and her husband immediately dove in, pulled him out and started performing CPR. They called 911.

"We have no recollection of how we got to the phone to call 911, but it made all the difference," said Cummings, 40.

Firefighters and paramedics from St. Petersburg's fire station four showed up and started working on Jud. When he took a breath, one of the workers cheered.

"Atta boy!"

In the hospital, doctors put Jud into a coma. He went on to spend a year recovering from a traumatic brain injury from the accident. He couldn't walk or sit or chew food.

Now he's 7 and healthy. He visits the firefighters every year on the anniversary of the accident.

And he tells his friends about it so they'll stay safe, too.

Stephanie Hayes can be reached at shayes@sptimes.com or (727) 893-8857.