Thought to be sleeping, 10-month-old drowns in Riverview pool

By Shelley Rossetter, Times Staff Writer
In Print: Saturday, May 15, 2010

RIVERVIEW— Thought to be sleeping soundly in her crib, a 10-month-old girl drowned Friday evening when she fell into the family's backyard pool, sheriff's deputies said.

Randal Dale and his wife, of 12907 Astorwood Place, were running errands Friday as the baby's grandparents watched the baby, Jaelynn Dale, said Larry McKinnon, a spokesman for the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office.

While they were gone, relatives put Jaelynn down for a nap. When Dale, 24, got home, he went to check on his daughter — but she was gone, McKinnon said.

A search began and minutes later, family members found her at the bottom of the pool, he said.

Dale called 911 at 6:10 p.m. saying his daughter was unconscious after being pulled from the water. Emergency operators began giving the family instructions over the phone on how to perform CPR while an ambulance made its way to the house, McKinnon said.

Upon arrival, paramedics found Jaelynn unresponsive. She was taken to Brandon Regional Hospital, where she was pronounced dead about 7 p.m.

Jaelynn would have been a year old in June.

The home, which Dale and his wife share with Jaelynn's grandparents and several other relatives, is a single-story house with a screened pool built in 1990, property records show.

It is not clear whether the house had extra safety precautions around the pool, McKinnon said.

Between the ages of 10 and 12 months, babies become increasingly mobile, the Mayo Clinic says.

"Most babies this age can sit without help and pull themselves to a standing position," the clinic writes in a developmental guide for parents.

"Your baby may use various forward movements to explore new territory. Creeping and crawling will give way to cruising along the furniture and eventually walking."

More children under the age of 5 drown in Florida than any other state in the country, according to the Florida Department of Health.

Shelley Rossetter can be reached at ‎(813)‎ 226-3374 or srossetter@sptimes.com.