LAUDERDALE LAKES, Fla. – A child has been hospitalized after being pulled from a Broward County pool.
His grandmother told Local 10 News that the boy is in stable but critical condition, and that had the pool been properly secured, this never would’ve happened.
Carmen Frazier recalled the terrifying moments she saw her 5-year-old grandson face down and unconscious in a neighbor’s pool.
“I run and I saw him on his face in the pool,” she said. “I did not remember I cannot swim, I just wanted to save my grandson. I just jumped in.”
Frazier told Local 10 News’ Roy Ramos that she was caring for an elderly woman at a Lauderdale Lakes home when the boy, named Samir, wandered off.
She began searching for him, first flagging down Victoria Fradestin, who was just sitting in her car outside of a friend’s house.
At that moment, Frazier, unable to swim herself, jumped in the pool and quickly realized she too needed help.
“I started going down and I started screaming,” she said. “The same lady in the black car just came screaming call 911 call 911.”
Said Fradestin: “I went to the back and the grandmother was in the pool actually drowning, and I jumped in to save the grandmother and the baby was already unresponsive floating. Somebody else saved the baby, took him out of the pool, and I just performed CPR.”
The two were rushed to an area hospital to be treated.
While Frazier was released, Samir remains in critical condition in intensive care.
“I don’t think that’s good, we just have to keep praying,” she said.
Frazier said her grandson walked out of the house through the garage and was able to enter the pool because of an open backyard with no fence and an exposed screen opening.
She believes had the home, which was under construction, been properly secured, her grandson would have never fallen in.
“If that pool was secure, there is no way my grandson would get in,” she said.
The Broward Sheriff’s Office said the incident remains under investigation when asked by Local 10 News if the homeowner would be cited or charged.