A Florida woman called 911 last week to report two children who appeared to be drowning in her apartment complex’s pool, only to discover they were her own children.
Last Thursday, Althea Bradford was working in the property manager’s office at Oasis of Springtree apartment complex in Sunrise, Florida when she noticed two small children floating in the pool.
“There’s two dead children in the pool! I just saw bodies!” Bradford said to the 911 dispatcher.
At the time that she made the call, Bradford, who had left her 2-year-old twins, Jada and Henry Roman, with a babysitter while she worked, had no idea they were her children.
The babysitter left the children alone while she went to the bathroom. One of them apparently unlocked the door and they walked to the nearby pool where they drowned.
Jada died at the hospital and Henry remains in critical condition.
Read more from the Daily Mail:
‘It appears that at one point, one of the children apparently manipulated the lock, at which time both exited the apartment and had a clear path from the apartment to the pool area,’ police said.
The toddlers were discovered floating in the water by first responders, who arrived on the scene after getting a 911 call placed by the children’s unsuspecting mother.
…
According to estimates, by the time a police officer and firefighter responded to the call, the two children had been underwater for at least 4 minutes.
Medical professionals consider the 3-minute mark to be the cut-off point after which irreparable brain damage sets in due to lack of oxygen.
According to the Florida Department of Health, the Sunshine State loses more children under the age of five to drowning than any other state each year – enough kids to fill three to four pre-school classrooms.
The gate around the pool had been left open.
h/t – tvone
