Today, I saw the most disturbing thing I’ve seen in a long time.
I watched my neighbors as their 2-year-old almost died in their arms.
Please, please, if you’re a parent, don’t let your young kids into a hot tub. My neighbors did, and the boy’s temperature shot up so high he began seizing, stopped breathing for an insanely long time, turned blue and went limp.
I will never be able to get that image out of my head. I thought he was dead.
I’m actually having trouble sleeping because of it (okay, so I was already an insomniac, but it is keeping me up).
Thankfully, the rescue team was faster than I thought possible (I was the one who had to call 911, and I sincerely thought that it was too late) and the baby’s okay (with a bit of help from our friend Randy Sanders’ dad, one of the first to respond), but without them, he surely wouldn’t be.
So hug your kids a little tighter today, and keep them away from hot tubs.
I’m going to go watch Noah sleep.
-bc
Why the hot tub,
My children have been in since 9 weeks of age. Now this was with some smarts on temp as we turned it down to 99 or so (infants cannot regulate temp well, get them too hot and they take off, but a 2 y/o has a fairly developed theromregulation in the thymus and hypothlomus).
But the hot tub in it’s self is not dangerous and actually gets them used to water. This in context, the tubs with a single drain is bad, children, toddlers even get stuck to the drain with some disasterous results, this is a mechanical design and traumatic injury pattern, not a medical injury.
I would like to know some more about this case, I am a Senior Critical Care Paramedic, Reserve Independent Duty Corpsman and involved in our 911 system and education of our EMS system, hence why I searched out your article. I am also glad that 911 worked well for you and that the outcome was good, but I think there is something underlying in the case, and I would like to know what was found.
Ken H.
Hey Ken,
Obviously, your credentials far outweigh my knowledge. I can only speak from what I saw and what I heard from EMTs on the scene, plus the word of the family upon returning from the hospital. They were told that the hospital sees cases like this somewhat frequently.
I will say that I can’t rule out that it could be a case of prolonged exposure (the child may have been in for a while), or a setting too high on the hot tub, or any other number of variables. I just know I’m going to hold off until my son’s a little older.
(side note: from what I hear – there was another close call with a different child and a hot tub here at our apartment a few nights ago, but that’s all I know and is purely hearsay)