Bridgeview Police investigate drowning death of 6-year-old child

June 18, 2014 | Filed under: Municipalities,News | Posted by: admin +

Bridgeview Police investigate drowning death of 6-year-old child 5.00/5 (100.00%) 6 votes

Bridgeview Police investigate drowning death of 6-year-old child

Bridgeview Police Chief Walter Klimek

A six year old boy pulled unresponsive from the shallow end of the Bridgeview public pool on Tuesday afternoon lost his battle for life and died this evening, officials at the hospital where he was being treated confirmed.

The victim, Michael Duda, was one of 73 children visiting the Bridgeview Pool as a part of the Village of Justice Park District Summer Camp program. The summer camp group had 10 adult chaperones from Justice, Illinois where the boy lived.

At about 1:43 pm on Tuesday, pool lifeguards pulled the child from the shallow end of the pool and immediately administered CPR until emergency paramedics could arrive a few minutes later. The Paramedics took the boy to Christ Hospital where he remained with his parents, unresponsive but with a weak pulse, through the night until this evening.

“First, I want to say that our prayers and condolences go out to the parents and family of the young 6-year-old child who passed away this evening. This is a terrible tragedy that has touched everyone,” said Bridgeview Police Chief Walter Klimek who is supervising the investigation.

“The tragedy is under investigation. The pool has been ordered closed for the next three days as it is being investigated. This is the first major emergency incident at the pool in 30 years.”

Klimek said he reviewed videotape taken from the pool security cameras but they do not show much other than the young boy being rescued from the shallow end of the pool. There were about 300 people at the pool at the time, which is below the maximum that is allowed of 345 people.

The details of what happened are being investigated, but based on interviews, Klimek said, the staff at the pool acted quickly as soon as it became known that the little boy was in trouble.

“This is tough on everyone,” Klimek said. “No one wants to see this kind of tragedy. We were hoping through the night that the little child would pull through, and we were very saddened to learn this evening that his fight for survival came to an end.”

END