GARDEN GROVE - A second toddler found floating in a backyard pool Wednesday has died, authorities reported today.
Jason Nguyen, 2, died at 8:50 p.m. Thursday at Children's Hospital of Orange County. His cousin, Khloe Huynh, died Wednesday after both were pulled from the water.
No one had been swimming in the murky backyard pool in a while. It took just minutes for 21-month-old Khloe and her 2-year-old cousin Jason to slip away and into the deep green water Wednesday.
The mother of one of the toddlers was inside the house. They were gone for just 15 minutes, she told police.
Firefighters found the toddlers wet and unconscious, cradled in the arms of their mothers near the pool in the 14100 block of Deanann Place just after 3 p.m.
Doctors at Garden Grove Medical Center tried to save the children, but Khloe Huynh slipped away. She was pronounced dead just before 5 p.m. Jason was given emergency treatment for about 1½ hours and rushed to Children's Hospital of Orange County in Orange in critical condition, Garden Grove police Lt. Travis Whitman said.
"It's just bad … what happened," said Nga Huynh, an aunt who wasn't there during the drowning. "It was just an accident."
Huynh wouldn't say more. The mothers – 23 and 25 – are sisters.
The pool had a fence around it. Police are trying to determine if the gate had been left open.
"We are handling this as a casualty, not a criminal investigation," Whitman said.
Drowning is the No. 1 cause of death for children under the age of 5, said Capt. Stephen Miller of the Orange County Fire Authority. An average of nine people a day drowned in the U.S. in 2003, according to the Centers for Disease Prevention and Control.
"It's only a matter of seconds," said Cindy Nagamatsu Hanlon, a community safety officer with the Garden Grove Police Department. "You can't afford to let them out of your sight for a second."
"I can't even imagine what those mothers must be going through," Nagamatsu Hanlon said. "They certainly didn't intend for that to happen. How do you live with that?"
A land of pools and beaches, California once led the nation in drownings. Lawmakers have toughened state laws and local ordinances to prevent drownings in backyard pools and spas, said Jim Cook, a Garden Grove permit center supervisor. The Swimming Pool and Safety Act enacted Jan. 1 requires swimming pools in new and remodeled homes to have even more safety provisions in place.
"There's always concern about children falling in the pool and drowning," Cook said. A $7 door alarm can let parents know when a child goes outside. Seconds could save a life, safety officials say.
"Drowning is 100 percent preventable," Miller said. "The risk with water never goes away. We can't emphasize enough having multiple layers of protection like door alarms and locks. One of those layers of protection is going to break down. That's why you have backup to prevent tragedy."
Some just opt to do without the pool.
Henry Cabrera, 26, who lives on the same street as Hoang, said two homes on Deanann Place have pools but his home doesn't because of accidents like the one Wednesday.
"I have nephews and nieces and they're a handful," Cabrera said. "It's dangerous. It's a big liability for sure to have a pool."