Chaplain Call Out - April 11, 2007

Received a call from the SVPD Watch Commander at 11:01 this morning. A two-year-old boy was involved in a drowning in his own backyard. No one noticed that he had opened the sliding glass door to the patio and found his way to the pool until it was too late.

When they went searching for him, he was found at the bottom of the pool. A neighbor knew CPR and started immediately. When I arrived at the house, he had already been taken to the hospital, which I know by experience has a great team of Chaplains. I knew the family would be well taken care of.

Upon my arrival, the 2 responding Officers were in the front yard. I spent some time talking through the incident with them. You might imagine that arriving on a scene like this, especially when you have kids yourself, can be VERY difficult for Officers to process.

It's always important, and a good thing, for them to be able to vent and talk it through. I'll check on them in a few days as well to see how they're doing.

In the back yard was one of our Crime Scene Investigators, who I also spent some time with. The opportunity for a Chaplain to be on scene is what we call a "ministry of presence". It's not always (even rarely) that a first responder actually processes the event on scene. However, it's the visibility and contact of a Chaplain quickly that can have an impact when it hits them later.

Once we were done at the scene, I went to the hospital to check on the Detectives working the case there. The little boy had arrived DOA, but they were able to revive him with CPR! By an hour or so later, they had some pupil activity, which is good news toward brain activity.

It will still be quite a while before they know for sure how much brain damage might have been done. Please pray for this little boy and his family. Pray that Mom and Dad will be reached with God's Love through this incident.