Child Recovering After Near Drowning..How Could This Have Been Prevented?

Chester child recovering after nearly drowning CHRISTINE SCOTT - Standard Journal ST. ANTHONY - The little 8-year-old girl involved in last Saturday's boating accident near the Chester Dam in Fremont County is doing well, her father says. Mike and Marvel Sedgwick of Chester are at Primary Children's Hospital in Salt Lake City with their daughter Christina, who is reportedly in good condition. "She is no longer on the ventilator," Sedgwick says. "She's doing great and will be able to eat solid foods again in a few days." Sedgwick says she is on antibiotics for strep pneumonia. He says she is responding well and should be able to come home in about a week. After she was revived at the scene, Christina was taken by Air Idaho to Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center in Idaho Falls before being transferred to Primary Children's Hospital Saturday. She was rescued from the water by Martine Cruz of Blackfoot, given cardiopulmonary resuscitation by her mother and James Thomason. Mike Thomason, Jim Nelson and Joe Sites and many others also helped, a news release from the Fremont County Sheriff's office says. Sedgwick says Christina, her brother and two teenage sisters were boating on the Henry's Fork near the Chester Dam when the boat's motor stopped. Her father says his 20-year-old son tried to restart the motor. When he couldn't get the motor going, he tried paddling with only one paddle. The other paddle was being used in another boat. Sedgwick says the older teenagers went into the water to get the boat away from the spillway. He says he was told Christina panicked, jumped from the boat and went over the spillway and was pulled under by the swift current. Christina's father says his four children were pulled from the water by a man (apparently Cruz.) "I don't even know his name. I just know he saved my children's lives. He pulled my kids out. He risked his own life for theirs. I don't know how to thank him." Sedgwick seemed flabbergasted by the way everyone responded at the scene. "This is a wonderful community," he says. "There were so many people, people with air tanks in case they had to go down for her body, ambulance people, police, the medical people in the helicopter. How do you thank so many people for the lives of your children http://www.rexburgstandardjournal.com/articles/2005/06/03/news/news02.txt