AUSTRALIA – A family whose three-year-old son drowned in their neighbor’s backyard pool had moved into their new home just days before his mother found him dead.
Isaac, just 3 years old, was found lifeless in a backyard swimming pool in Livingston, Western Australia, last Thursday, before dying at Perth Children’s Hospital just after New Year’s Eve while on life support.
His devastated aunt, Ummu Bakri, said her sister had moved to the suburb to be closer to a school that offered an apprenticeship program for her other son, NY Breaking reports.
‘She was so excited for the future and because it was her birthday, she was trying to get everything set up for a family reunion at the new house.
‘Setting up the new house, she realized her three-year-old son was missing,’ she wrote on Facebook.
‘Searching around the house and backyard, she couldn’t find it and thought the worst.
‘All she could think was that maybe he had managed to open the side door of the garage and escape into the street.
‘His mother, Zahra, frantically searched the streets of Livingston for more than 15 minutes, before her neighbor’s children found him dead in his swimming pool.
‘Having to do CPR on his own son until the police came to take over. Isaac was taken to the ICU, where he would be on life support for five days.
Just after New Year’s Eve, the family was forced to make the devastating decision to take the boy off life support at Perth Children’s Hospital.
Bakri revealed that the pool fence on the property was broken.
‘Police investigation discovered two panels of the ColourBond boundary fence missing, visible from the neighbor’s house and hidden behind the garage and unknown to my sister and husband on their side of the property.
Now she pleads Australians to make sure their pools are properly fenced.
‘A tragedy like this was preventable and a young child should be safe within the confines of their home,’ she said.
More than $17,000 has already been raised for the boy, with hundreds of neighbors offering their support to the family.
Tougher penalties are needed for pool owners, leaving them unfenced — no matter what they should have fines of $50,000-100,000 or more and a criminal record if they are found negligent.