Four kids hurt over holiday weekend

Four children were seriously injured in separate incidents Saturday afternoon as the Labor Day weekend began.

Two toddlers were found by relatives at the bottom of a pool just after 3 p.m. on the 3900 block of 45th Avenue in Lauderdale Lakes, according to Mike Jachles, spokesman for Broward Sheriff ’s Fire Rescue. The boy is about 18 months old, and the girl appeared to be a bit older, he said. They are not siblings.

They were rushed to Plantation Hospital and are in critical condition, he said.

Jachles said the pool was unkempt, with algae growing in it. “It looked like pea soup,” he said.

Three uncles and the toddler’s grandparents were in the house at the time of the incident. One of the uncles went to the backyard to do yard work and apparently the children followed him, he said.

The grandmother went to the backyard a short time later and asked the uncle if he had seen the children. They started searching and found both toddlers at the bottom of the pool.

The children did not have a pulse, Jachles said. The uncle started CPR on one of them, and soon after firefighters arrived and took over, restoring a pulse to both toddlers.

The sheriff’s office special victim’s unit took statement from all five adults and is continuing the investigation.

“Water, it’s like a magnet for children,” Jachles said. “It attracts them and all it takes is a moment of not paying attention for a holiday weekend to turn tragic.”

Two children suffered burns, although the circumstances aren’t clear. Shortly after 5 p.m., the department received a call from Broward Health North requesting an air transport of two pediatric burn patients, from Broward Health North to the Jackson Memorial Hospital burn unit in Miami.

Jachles said he isn’t certain what city or town the children came from, but apparently a relative took the children to Broward Health North by car rather than calling for an ambulance. Broward Health North is not a pediatric hospital and doesn’t have a burn unit.