If you or a member of your family has been seriously injured in a swimming pool accident in La Quinta, Rancho Mirage, Riverside, Newport Beach or Santa Ana, Fullerton or Yorba Linda, or if you've lost a loved one in a swimming pool drowning as a result of the negligence of another in Riverside, San Bernardino, Chula Vista, Moreno Valley, Palmdale or El Cajon, you may be wondering what steps you should take to provide care or to seek compensation for your injuries or loss. But more important than that, is getting the medical care you need and quickly.
Whether the swimming pool accident occurred in San Diego, Orange County, Anaheim, Irvine, Newport Beach, the Inland Empire cities like Ontario, Rancho Cucamonga, Fontana, Temecula or Palm Springs and Palm Desert, yes, you should contact an attorney before vital evidence is lost, but you may need medical care even more vitally, even if you think you feel fine.
Drownings don't just occur to kids and they don't happen just in swimming pools. A very small amount of water can be fatal to a small child. And an adult or a child who has had a near-drowning can still suffer brain damage, respiratory damage or death hours later.
Depending on the research you read, or the ages involved, drowning is from the fourth to the first cause of deaths to children. For children under the age of 14, drowning in swimming pools is the leading cause of death. Other studies put drowning fourth after guns, car accidents and burns for the leading cause of unnatural death of all children. The fact is, more people die in swimming pool drownings than any other type of activity.
A child however can drown in a beer cooler, a fish pond, other water features, Jacuzzi, toilet, water bowl, stream, river, drain and any other place where their head can be in the water.Because of their disproportionate weight of their heads, a toddler can fall into water and find it difficult to lift their head or their body so they can breathe.
A condition not often discussed is near-drowning or dry-drowning. This can occur hours after a person has nearly suffocated in water and with a build-up of water in their lungs, they can die after walking around and talking and performing other activities.
For every child that drowns, five are left with permanent brain damage or damage to their respiratory system.
So what can be done to prevent drownings? Vigilance is the word, whenever children are around water. Keep gates to pools closed and locked, and whenever possible keep covers on pools. Many people are unaware of electronic splash sensors that can be employed to sound an alarm whenever a splash is detected. And take a CPR course or take a refresher course.
Never try to rescue someone if it would endanger your life. Call for help. If the person is not breathing but has a pulse, perform the Heimlich maneuver first and quickly to clear the airway (though some would say skip this step and proceed to the next) and then begin mouth to mouth breathing immediately. If the person starts to breathe again, they will likely need to vomit. Place the person on their side with their head lower than their torso so the airway can be cleared. If there is no pulse, you should still perform CPR. Keep the person warm. Call 911 at your earliest possible moment. And if a person has nearly drowned take them to an emergency room even if they appear to have completely recovered.
If you or someone you know has been seriously injured in a personal injury accident or drowning in Orange County, San Diego, in Riverside, Palm Springs or anywhere in Southern California, we have the knowledge and resources to be your California Swimming Pool Accident Lawyers, and Orange County and San Diego Drowning Accident Attorneys. For this reason, be sure to hire a California law firm with personal injury lawyers who can represent you from La Quinta to Corona del Mar, Coachella, Hesperia, Garden Grove, Fontana, Ontario, Rancho Cucamonga, Victorville, Carlsbad and San Bernardino to Long Beach and Santa Barbara.
If you have been injured in a swimming pool accident and want to know more about your rights and what you are entitled to, call the Law Offices of R. Sebastian Gibson, or visit our website at and learn more about how we obtain great personal injury settlements from insurance companies. You can also call us to speak directly to Sebastian Gibson about any swimming or drowning incident, auto, motorcycle, truck, pedestrian, car or bicycle accident, the loss of a loved one in a wrongful death or about a dog bite injury with no charge for your consultation.
