GUESTBOOK FOR ZACHARY L. SMITH
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WEST CHESTER TWP. — The Butler County Coroner’s Office has released the name of the boy found at the bottom of a pool here Saturday, June 12 — the victim of an apparent drowning.
Zachary L. Smith, 6, of Liberty Twp., was pulled from the Lakota Hills Swim Club pool about 4 p.m. and transported to Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center Liberty Campus, where he was pronounced dead.
An autopsy is scheduled for this morning, June 14, at the Butler County Morgue to determine the cause of death.
The Lakota Hills Swim Club will reopen today two days after the incident.
The voice mail recording at the swim club told callers the club was closed on Sunday but would re-open today with all planned activities.
West Chester Twp. Spokeswoman Barb Wilson said Sunday, “All we know is he went missing at the pool and they searched the pool and found him at the bottom and brought him out,” Wilson said. “They performed CPR and put an AED (automated external defibrillator) on him and transported him to Children’s Liberty. He was deceased.”
Fire Capt. Kelly Mayer said the boy was attending a private party at the facility when the apparent drowning occurred.
Smith may have been in the water for up to eight minutes before he was located at the bottom of the pool, Mayer said. A lifeguard was on duty during the time of the incident and some of the boy’s family may have also been in the pool area.
According to statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in 2007, there were 3,443 fatal unintentional drownings in the United States. That’s an average of ten deaths per day.
The study also revealed that more than one in five fatal drowning victims are children age 14 and younger. In addition, for every child who dies from drowning, another four received emergency department care for nonfatal submersion injuries.
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