Baptist Memorial Health Care releases statement on drowning incident

COLUMBUS, Miss. (PRESS RELEASE) – A three-year-old is recovering after accidentally falling into a swimming pool Saturday morning.

The accident happened on Springdale Drive in East Columbus just before noon, according to Columbus Public Information Officer Joe Dillon.

Columbus Fire and Rescue and the Columbus Police Department found the child unresponsive and not breathing. Emergency Personnel immediately provided medical treatment.

Dillon said firefighters transported the child to Baptist Memorial Hospital by firetruck after discovering no ambulances from Columbus were available.

The child was later taken to University Medical Center in Jackson by ambulance due to high winds grounding all emergency helicopters for medical transportation.

Baptist Memorial Health Care has released the following statement about the incident and no ambulances being available:

“Baptist Ambulance Service is committed to responding to all 911 calls in Lowndes County as timely as possible. Unfortunately, there are times in all communities when emergencies happen when all ambulance crews are already responding to other 911 calls.

We were fully staffed to handle our normal volume of 911 calls on Saturday, but we had received and were responding to seven emergent calls during the timeframe of Saturday’s incident. All of these calls involved patients who required transport to our Emergency Room.

In those cases when all of our ambulances are dispatched on 911 calls, other first responders in the city and county assist those in need by responding to the scene and administering life-saving care.

That is what happened in this case, and it is a testimony of how the 911 system is supposed to work. The fire department’s quick action saved this child’s life when they brought the child to our hospital. Helicopters were unavailable to transport the child due to weather, so to speed up the transport, our ER providers coordinated ground transport via Baptist ambulance and Batson Children’s Hospital. The Baptist ambulance, accompanied by a critical care air flight crew, met a critical care pediatric transport unit from Batson in Louisville.

We are fortunate to have a 911 system that works this well to take care of the citizens in our city and county. It is a great example of the teamwork that all of our first responders train for, and we thank each of them for their dedication to our community.

We will continue to keep the Jones family in our prayers as this precious child recovers.”