Both children who were pulled from a Greenwood drainage pond Wednesday night have died.
One child died from her injuries at Franciscan Health Hospital in Indianapolis Thursday morning. The second child passed away later that afternoon at Riley Hospital for Children, according to a news release from the Indiana Department of Natural Resources.
Officials said the Marion County Coroner’s office would conduct an autopsy to determine the exact cause of death, ​the release says.
At approximately 7:50 p.m., emergency personnel were called to the 1200 block of Edgewater Drive after two children were separated from a group of people playing in the water and did not resurface​. The group was playing in a pond tucked behind homes just south of Greenwood Community High School​, officials said​.
Greenwood Fire Department and Greenwood Police Department were first on the scene and rescued the female victims at 8:05 p.m. and 8:15 p.m., respectively. The children were in approximately 15 feet of water, the release says.
The children were transported to Franciscan Health Hospital and Community South in critical condition, the release says.
Indiana Conservation Officers are investigating the incident, the release says. Both children are believed to be pre-teens or teens, said Chad Tatman, a Greenwood Fire Department spokesperson.
The Bargersville and Indianapolis fire departments, Johnson County Sheriff’s Office and Southport Police assisted at the scene, the release says.
Nationwide, the number of fatal child drownings and nonfatal drowning injuries for children under age 15 have remained high. Every year, there an estimated 3,960 fatal unintentional drownings — an average of 11 a day — and an estimated 8,080 nonfatal drownings —an average of 22 a day, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Drowning is a leading cause of death for children, and for children between ages 1-14, it is the second-leading cause of death after motor vehicle crashes, according to CDC data.
Last year, the number of pool- or spa-related, hospital department-treated, nonfatal drowning injuries involving children younger than 15-years-old spiked 17% in 2021 with 6,800 injuries reported, compared to 5,800 in 2020, according to a report released last week by the U.S. Consumer and Product Safety Commission.
For fatal pool- or spa-related drownings involving children younger than 15-years-old, an average of 389 fatal drownings were reported from 2017 to 2019, the most recent years available.
There are many parents and caregivers can take to keep children safer in an around the water, officials say.
You should never leave a child unattended in or near water, and should always designate an adult to watch the child while they are in the water. The person shouldn’t be reading, texting, using a phone or otherwise be distracted while watching the child, according to an USCPC news release.
Parents and caregivers should learn how to swim and should teach their children how to swim. They should also learn how to perform CPR on both children and adults, and make sure to keep kids away from pool drains, pipes and other openings to avoid entrapment, the news release says.
Pool and spa owners, should install layers of barriers to prevent unsupervised children from accessing the water. These barriers include door alarms, pool covers and self-closing, self-latching devices on fence gates and doors that access pools, the news release says.
People should also make sure any pool or spa in the home has a drain cover that complies with federal safety standards, the news release says.
