Posted on 07/21/2006 2:06:17 PM PDT by highimpact
ORLANDO, Fla. -- A 14-year-old who was sucked to the bottom of a hotel hot tub and kept under water for at least seven minutes was likely saved by air his father breathed into his mouth during the ordeal.
Aljuwon Pipkin, who was visiting Walt Disney World from New Jersey, became stuck at the bottom of the hot tub last Thursday at the Radisson Parkway Hotel.
Officials said a grate at the bottom of the tub apparently broke and created a strong suction that pulled the teen underwater. Click here to find out more!
Pipkin's father was at the pool and noticed his son stuck at the bottom of the hot tub.
"I get chills now even speaking about it," father Sharif Pipkin said. "I was truly a traumatic moment. I figured he was at the bottom and they just couldn't pull him up and then he didn't come up. And, I pulled again and he didn't come up. I began to holler for help from people."
As people jumped in to pull the teen from the bottom of the tub, Pipkin's father jumped in and began to breathe air into his son's mouth, the report said.
"(Aljuwon Pipkin) doesn't remember the frantic help from hotel guests and doesn't remember his father breathing into his mouth underwater," Local 6 reporter Jessica Sanchez said.
Pipkin was transported to Florida Hospital South in critical condition and initial scans of his brain were abnormal. Doctors feared he suffered brain damage.
However, seven days after the near drowning, Pipkin was given the OK to leave the hospital. He was diagnosed as being healthy with no permanent damage from the incident.
(Excerpt) Read more at local6.com ...
Pipkin's family said they do not blame the Radisson Hotel and said they believe what happened was an accident, the report said.
That is amazing! The whole thing is amazing!!
"The most amazing part of all is the final statement at the bottom of the article:"
Huh? The "most amazing part" is the headline itself. The rest(what didn't happen) is an after thought.
Wow. Good for the Pipkin father, and thank G-d the son is alright.
And though they won't be being sued, the Radisson Hotel should make some sort of amends...
I have read about similar accidents before and wondered why the bystanders didn't do this.
What I meant about "the most amazing part" is the fact that they're not going to sue the hotel. 99.9% of these stories usually end with, "the family has hired an attorney and plan to sue the hotel for 100 Zillion Dollars."
Well, the LAST thing the family is thinking about right now is money. They are probably too happy to have the son survive the ordeal. And who knows if the boy had died, the hotel might have been sued.
And the hotel should investigate it so that it doesn't happen again. For insurance sake(if you're thinking about money), or for the sake of their customer's safety.
Several years ago I was in a hottub in Foxwoods casino hotel when my butt cheek got stuck to the grate that was on the side. I literally struggled to free myself and had the grate marks and logo impaled on my skin for weeks.
If the Radisson were wise, they'd cut the family a big, fat check out of principle. They do appear to be at least a little bit negligent.
They just had this on the news the other night...why don't these people just turn off the spa pumps? The case I saw was tragic because this little girl's mom stayed in the spa trying to pull her out instead of walking 20 feet over to the pumps and turning them off...tragic. Apparently there were a lot of people standing around while this happened too.
Mouth to mouth resuscitation has saved countless people.
Goosebumps!!!
Mickey: "he say's he don't remember nuttin, ditch the plunger and tell Donald to lay low for a week"
Only a small portion of the air exhaled from one's lungs is CO2 -- it still contains a great deal of oxygen ... and water vapor.
Only a fraction of the exhaled air is C02, just as only a fraction of the oxygen taken in during an inhalation is actually absorbed into the bloodstream.
There were a rash of such accidents a few years ago. I was under the impression that hotel establishments had to have a "kill switch" for the pump, located near the pool or hot tub, in case the suction grate was damaged.
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