911 calls about girl trapped in sand detail a frantic rescue effort
As a group of men and woman worked frantically to dig 7-year-old Sloan Mattingly out of the sand hole that collapsed around her at the Lauderdale-bythe-Sea beach Tuesday afternoon, other witnesses made desperate calls to Broward County 911 dispatchers.
In the calls, which were released to the Miami Herald this week, people can be heard yelling and wailing in the background as the bystanders spoke with dispatchers to describe the harrowing scene near the High Noon Resort.
“The father started yelling for help,” one of the callers said. “The child is caught in a hole in the sand they were digging. The mom is yelling the daughter is in there.”
“A bunch of men are trying to dig somebody out,” another caller said. “There is a whole circle of men digging in the sand.”
“It’s a little girl. Oh, my God, they’re still digging and yelling,” a third caller said.
Despite the efforts of beachgoers, firefighters and Broward Sheriff’s Office deputies, the girl wasn’t breathing and had no pulse when she was pulled from the pit, according to Pompano
Beach Fire Rescue.
After firefighters dug Sloan out using support boards and shovels, they rushed her to Broward Health Medical Center in Fort Lauderdale, where doctors pronounced her dead.
The Mattinglys were vacationing from Fort Wayne, Indiana, according to 21 Alive News, a TV station in the state.
Theresa and Jason Mattingly’s 9-year-old son, Maddox, was also trapped in the 5-to-6-foot hole, but paramedics were able to get him out in stable condition, King said.
On a GoFundMe page set up by a family friend to help pay for funeral costs, Theresa Mattingly is quoted as saying:
“A freak accident happened yesterday while we are here on vacation and it took away our greatest 7.5 years. Don’t tell us you’re sorry for our loss … don’t do that to us. We experienced the purest human being and we are forever changed by her. We love you beyond any stretch of the imagination. Our sweet Sloan. What we would give.”
David Goodhue: 305-923-9728, @DavidGoodhue
Juno Beach, Florida Jeanne Heyward Miami Attorney passed away February 15, 2024. Jeanne was a prominent appellate lawyer who graduated first in her 1955 Law School class at the University of Miami. Her course outlines were used for many years after she graduated. She joined the Adams Ward firm as a lawyer and rose to be the first female partner of any law firm in Florida. She then opened her own appellate Law Firm. Jeanne was known to be quiet and elegant, yet smart and funny. All the lawyers walking