In addition to power outages and excruciating heat, an area in Northeast Ohio has encountered another obstacle, deadly water-related incidents including several drownings this month alone. And this past week, a toddler drowned in his very own swimming pool.

It was far from the normally peaceful Belden neighborhood that day as hospital sirens and police cars filled the streets on Belden Avenue. According to police reports, officers were called to the location of 3515 Belden Avenue, located on the southside of Youngstown, Ohio where they found three-year-old Kayden Braden dead. Kayden was being watched by his grandmother, Marcia Braden, at the time of the drowning.  The grandmother was watching several children in her home and had a four foot deep swimming pool she had got for Kayden.

Braden took all of the children into the house to take off their flotation devices and give them something to eat. After one young boy finished eating his cereal, he went back outside into the pool where he felt something hit his leg and thought it was a toy, but when he looked down he saw little Kayden lying at the bottom of the pool.

The young boy then proceeded to grab Kayden out of the pool where he layed him on the deck, screaming for help, and then Braden attempted to give her grandson CPR but he was unresponsive.

Police arrived at the scene at approximately 2:30 Wednesday afternoon, where they questioned Braden about what happened. Braden, who was crying hysterically, told officers that he initially came inside but must have gone back out to the pool when she was tending to the other children. Shortly thereafter she collapsed after having trouble breathing when police were talking to her. She was then rushed to St. Elizabeth’s Hospital by ambulance.

As Kayden was rushed off to the hospital, neighbors and spectators stood outside their homes praying for Kayden. He was taken to Akron Children’s Hospital Boardman Campus where he was officially pronounced dead with the cause of death being drowning.

According to Detective Sargent Doug Bobovick, “The incident does not seem to involve any foul play.” Police are investigating, and even though it’s very early on in the investigation, Detective Bobovick believes that it was just a horrible accident.

In the tri-county area including Mahoning, Columbiana and Trumbull counties, several people have died as a result of drowning this past year, five of which are in the month of July alone.

Mark Goodrich, a 12-year-old boy from Sharon, Pennsylvania, just over the Ohio border went swimming with friends two weeks ago in the Shenango Valley River and went missing. He was found dead the next day on the side of the river by a local resident.

Three others have also drowned in the region two weekends ago, all in different locations, and all were ruled as “accidental drownings.”

The article Youngstown Drowning Takes a Toddler’s Life too Soon appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.