A local couple is mourning the loss of their two-year-old son, after the toddler drowned in an above-ground swimming pool in north Columbus Friday night.
Lowndes County Coroner Greg Merchant said Hayden White, 2, was visiting family friends with his father, Joey White, when he slipped away unnoticed and fell into a 42-inch swimming pool on the property, located at 160 Kristian Drive, off Gatlin Road.
Emergency personnel responded shortly after 8 p.m. Friday and transported the child to Baptist Memorial Hospital-Golden Triangle, where he was pronounced dead. He had just recently celebrated his second birthday. His mother, Whitney Barham, was not present when the incident occurred.
Funeral arrangements are incomplete and will be handled by Memorial Funeral Home in Columbus.
Chance Nobles, a 7-year-old Tupelo boy, drowned Friday afternoon at Veteran’s Memorial Park in Tupelo.
Merchant said the two incidents highlight the need for close supervision of children around water. He encouraged parents to enroll children in swimming lessons from the YMCA or seek some measure of swim safety education, as a precaution.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention cites drowning as the top cause of death, besides birth defects, for children between the ages of 1 and 4, with the majority of those drowning in home swimming pools. Drowning is the second leading cause of death for children below the age of 14.
Carmen K. Sisson is the former news editor at The Dispatch.
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