RIP.
But honestly, where were the adults that were suppose to be watching the three and four year old.

If your going to a pool and you have small children then you should at the very least make sure they at least know how to swim and are wearing life vest, because as it's been said it only takes a minute for trouble to happen. I really pisses me off at all the excuses being given as to why this happened, ultimately it is the parents responsibilty to insure their childrens safety. so if it happened on your watch take responsiblity and stop with the excuses. Harsh I know but true.

How did they know that he held up the little girl to save her? is a 3 year old able to really say what really happened? Also were they the only 2 in the pool? where were the others? seems like they were alone in the twilite zone

Multiple Children+another child with impairments= More adults when in a pool situation...or Say you have a child with autism doesn't give you an excuse to ignore your other children....I know that sounds harsh maybe crude but for some reason it could have saved this little boy. Reading posts from the family's best friend Amy... I just want to SCREAM at her and tell her to NEVER let the mother of the Xander watch her kid/s. Obviously her impaired child took precedence over her others...Sickens me beyond what I could imagine...I can remember being at public pools and seeing that same circumstance play over and over (thankfully no one I saw died though). Those of you with a disabled child and have multiple other children...WATCH them all or don't bring them to a pool to drown. Harsh I know...But please please please don't take for-granted the lives of your babies.

I can't believe the hospital and rescue teams are going to charge this little boy for medical expenses. Under the circumstances any treatment he received should be gratis.

Such a sad story. I was a Pediatric ICU nurse for a very long time. Some of the most tragic cases were the near-drowning/drowning kids. Next to that were the children who died waiting for transplants. I commend these parents for taking their pain and turning it into a positive; allowing other parents to watch their children live as they lost their own dear son.

TROLLS stop finger pointing. Believe me, I have seen many parents in these situations and they will beat themselves up far more than your insensitive words ever will. You WERE NOT THERE and as such have no knowledge of who was or was not nearby, doing what or seeing what. Poor Xander died, a little girl was saved. That is the important point here. And now many other children will not; both those his organs will save, and the others who will now be watched a little more closely at the pool. And no, I am not assuming anyone's negligence. Just saying that this kind of thing makes everyone watch a little more closely. And my grandson is getting a swim vest immediately. Fearless and precious little boy who is my heart.

This is incredibly sad! Why is the mother of this child being judged in some of these comments. Drowning is silent and quick! It is the number one killer amongst young children. I experienced a very close call with my 3yr old this past month. Right after I put sunscreen on him he ran away and jumped in the pool. He didn't wait for me to put on his life jacket and only had his blow up ring around his waist. While jumping in he fell through his ring and started to go under. I was putting sunscreen on my 5 yr old at the time, sitting very close to the pool. I had looked away for a second and if it wasn't for my 4 yr old screaming "MOM" at me it could have be bad, very bad. We were lucky, and I will never forget had bad it could have been. As a mother of three young children it is hard to go to the pool with them, but it is also hard to go shopping with them as well. My God give this family strength for this difficult time.

I most never comment on these forums, but after reading the first page between the angry nonbeliever and everyone else compelled me to do so.

1. I don't care what any of you say. Some accidents ARE. NOT. PREVENTABLE. I'm guessing most of you who say so either A) have no kids or B) watch your children every second of every day and always have them in within arms reach. It is an incorrect assertion to think that this accident was preventable, because if it were preventable it probably wouldn't have ended this way! My thoughts and prayers go out to this family and the little boy. I can only hope that my son has as big of a heart as this boy has for others.

2. I had an incident just today that proves it doesn't matter HOW CAREFUL you are, that anything can happen. I was at the pool with my son today, and he was walking up and down the pool steps. I was standing right there with my arms circling around him, and I was about to help him step down into the pool (he's only 20 months old). I turned my head for less than a second, and within that time period he'd already taken a step down into the pool before I had a chance to help him down the steps. I caught him- no harm done. But it could have been worse even under the same circumstances. Say he slipped while falling, and by the time I turn my head back was too late to catch him and he ended up falling and breaking a bone. If that really did happen, I honestly wouldn't blame myself, because some accidents aren't preventable!!!! I was doing all I could and was holding him in my arms and helping him step down the pool steps during our entire pool visit, yet all it took was for one split second for me to turn my head.

For those of you that may respond saying "you shouldn't have turned your head, so that could have been preventable"- I'm guessing that you really don't have kids, and if you do then you must be the perfect parent. So to those perfect parents that have said that this poor boy died not because of sacrifice but at the hands of his parents, you should write a book on how to be the most smothering parent ever! Your kids must have never ever ever been/gotten hurt in their whole lives!! We are only human, and everyone. makes. mistakes. You can't have your eyes on your kids every second of every day.

Wow! Seems like a lot of folks here needs some meds. I thought this was about the drowning little boy and it turned into a religious and personal attack blog.

eben

ebennett1228

People do make mistakes but sometime we have to stop defending parents when they are negligent.... Plain and simple. A lot of kids unnecessarily have lost their lives because of unattentive parents. I see know reason why a child is struggling in the water and it's up to a 4 year old to attempt to save him an nobody is aware of what was going on. NEGLIGENCE UNATTENTIVENESS are the key words in this situation. Case closed....

I mean, where the hell were the parents in all of this? Lifeguards? Somebody???

How is it that so many people on this board are so upset that some of us have something to say about the lack of supervision. And some of you are parents! YES it is true that this is the story of a heroic 4 year old. But it is also true that if even 1 of these childs parents had been paying attention - we wouldn't be all having this discussion at all. It isn't heartless to point out that there were some serious problems with this picture. As a mother of a young child, my daughter NEVER goes near the water supervision. I really don't understand these people on here saying "it only takes a second....in the time it takes to pull sun screen from the bag and put it on.....there was another child who required more attention" These are all just excuses. DON'T let your child near the water until you are ready to devote your full attention to them. DON'T take your child to the pool if you have other kids who are going to take your attention away.

I'm not saying you can watch your child every minute of every second of everyday....it just seems to me that keeping a very close eye on children in the pool is pretty much a no brainer.

Heaven has just acquired a true hero....RIP little one..