"pool fence"

Published on: July 2, 2024

Police investigating after 5-year-old drowned in Miami-Dade pool. What to know to stay safe in the water this summer

A 5-year-old boy died Thursday night after drowning in the backyard pool of a home in Miami-Dade County, according to reporting from The Miami Herald.

Emergency responders were called out to the home, located on the 14800 block of SW 168th Terrace, just before 8 p.m. Thursday. The boy was taken to HCA Florida Kendall Hospital for emergency treatment but was pronounced dead at the hospital.

Additional details were not immediately available Friday. The incident is under investigation by the Miami-Dade Homicide Detectives.

Published on: June 7, 2024

Police investigate after 8-year-old drowned in neighbor’s Fort Lauderdale pool. These incidents on the rise, the CDC says.

By Leesfield & Partners

While packing a cooler with juice boxes on the way to the community pool, racking their brains to recall if they remembered the sunscreen, drowning is the last thing a parent wants to think about. But, according to the latest available data from the CDC, they should.

In its latest report on accident drownings in the United States, the Center for Disease Control reported that these incidents are on the rise. About 4,500 people drowned in the United States from 2020 through 2022, an increase of approximately 500 people per year since 2019, the numbers show. The CDC pits drowning as the leading cause of death for children ranging in age from 1 to 4 years old. The rate of drowning increased 28% from 2019 and 19% in adults from 65 to 74 years old.

Broward County Incident

Published on: March 24, 2015

Toddler drowns in pool in Pompano Beach – Florida leading cause of death of children between 1 and 4

By Leesfield & Partners

This past weekend, a 3-year-old boy, Henrique Dias Amorim, was discovered “floating” by a family member after a family gathering organized at a waterfront home that family had borrowed for the occasion. Somehow, it is believed the child found his way out to the backyard and the pool during the gathering. The responding authorities have already declared that no charges would be brought against anyone in this case, and they qualified this to be a horrific accident. Early investigation has shown that the pool in question did not have a pool fence or barrier to prevent the child from going inside the pool. It is unclear as of yet whether the home should have been equipped with such protection.

Recently, Leesfield & Partners filed a lawsuit in another tragic drowning case, to another little boy who was found in the pool by his grandfather, despite the pool being equipped with a pool fence. In their lawsuits, Ira Leesfield and Tom Scolaro have alleged that the pool fence manufacturer was liable and responsible for the incident due to numerous significant defects in the pool fence manufacturer’s product. Thankfully, the child survived, but not before he sustained catastrophic brain damage, for which he will require medical care the rest of his life.

The state of Florida has staggering statistics when it comes to fatalities of young children and pool drownings. According to Florida Health, Florida loses more children under age five to drowning than any other state. Annually in Florida, enough children to fill three to four preschool classrooms drown and do not live to see their fifth birthday.