Teen may have drowned at rec center
By Tillie Fong, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)
Published July 26, 2008 at 12:05 a.m.
A 15-year-old Commerce City girl apparently drowned while swimming in a pool at the Commerce City Recreation Center on Friday night.
The victim, who was not identified, was taken to North Suburban Hospital, where she was pronounced dead.
At 7:45 p.m. police and paramedics were called to the Commerce City Recreation Center, 6060 Parkway Drive, on a possible drowning.
Earlier, the girl and some friends apparently had been swimming at the deep end of the pool, where the water was 9 feet deep. The teenager went underneath the water but did not come up immediately. The friends realized that something was wrong and summoned the lifeguards, who jumped into the water and pulled her out.
They were performing CPR on the girl before paramedics took over. The girl died about an hour later at the hospital.
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July 26, 2008
6:10 a.m.
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OpinionatedLee writes:
The writer of the headline needs to go back to journalism school. Teen May Have Drowned at Rec Center - she may have died elsewhere at was moved to the rec center - she died at the rec center, but not sure if it was a drowning - teen is missing and may still be at bottom of pool?
July 26, 2008
7:55 a.m.
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vudumom writes:
I noticed the stupid headline also. Is it my imagination or is the RMN writing getting worse?
July 26, 2008
9:10 a.m.
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Creative_N_Denver writes:
"The friends realized that something was wrong and summoned the lifeguards."
Where were the guards at this time?
It would help if the Life Guards were paying attention. I stopped allowing my child to swim there because most of the guards are more interested in themselves! Constantly the young guards are yawning and talking with each other. This was brought up to the front desk! I have gone to other pools and they are constantly moving around the pool areas and watching the swimmers.
The last time my child swam there a small child was going under and struggling (On a Sunday), I had to grab the attention of a parent near them, the only Life Guard was over in the 3 foot section talking with another guard. It is really sad that this is what it will take to get the City to finally wake up and start to monitor the safety of their swimmers more closely!
I have to say one comment though, that there was an adult male guard that was excellent, but I hadn't seen him for quite some time, before I quit going there. He knew the swimmers and realized a swimmer was having trouble and helped them. There are excellent Life Guards out there that take the job seriously, but then others who don't...
My thoughts and prayers go out to the family and friends of that young girl.
July 26, 2008
12:06 p.m.
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redwhiteandBLUE writes:
That's right ..the life guards wasnt paying attention, by the time the kids got her attention it was too late. Next..is a law suit.
July 26, 2008
2:32 p.m.
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alaskangrass writes:
A young girl just died and you people complain about how the headline is written! Try reporting on death and having to see things you can never get out of your head, then tell me if you give a damn about the headline.
July 26, 2008
9:28 p.m.
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HollyGoLightly writes:
Wish there were more details available. How many swimmers were in the pool? What is the life guard to swimmer ratio? Do they have a maximum number of swimmers allowed in the pool? I'm looking for some explanation as to why the girl's friends had to get the attention of the life guard.
My sympathies are with the family and friends of the young girl.
July 26, 2008
9:48 p.m.
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navymom writes:
My thoughts and prayers go out to the family of this young girl. Any death is a tragedy and when other young people are present, as was obviously the case here, it affects them as well. I pray that these young people who were present are able to discuss their feelings with someone who can help them to deal with the death of their friend.
As for the writing of this story, I think that we were all able to understand the story. The headline may have been off, but I think that we can criticize each post if we want to go that route. Most people today write atrociously online. Most of the time people are in too much of a hurry to look at their grammar and spelling.
As for whether this writer has a journalism degree, that is irrelevant. Many people who write for newspapers do so without ever attending college.
Large_Marge, this writer, Tillie Fong, does have a journalism degree, as you would know if you read her biography after following the link. She just happened to pick a headline that did not make sense to some people.
The appropriateness of the headline or lack thereof is not the most important thing in this story. The most important thing is the death of this young girl and possibly the inattention of the life guards at the pool. That may be jumping to conclusions though. We would have to have much more information than was given in this short story.
July 27, 2008
7:08 a.m.
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geewhiz writes:
This is tragic event for the family and everyone involved. My heart goes out to them.
As for the headline, "may have drowned", it seems appropriate.
Until the cause of death has been determined, it would be irresponsible for the reporter to jump to that conclusion and start assigning blame, as I see many doing here. The cause of death could be an aneurysm, undiagnosed heart defect, or drug reaction. I've seen those in news stories involving young people regularly.
July 27, 2008
8:02 a.m.
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geewhiz writes:
The headline states "may have drowned", not "may have "died",
and speculates on the cause of death.
It does state when and where she died, "The girl died about an hour later at the hospital."
July 27, 2008
8:03 a.m.
Suggest removal
brownman writes:
Large_Marge: What is an Online Guy? Can you be more clear? Is he the guy that monitors the Web site? Or is he the guy that writes the headlines? Is "he" a guy?
Maybe YOU need to take a nap...or maybe you can apply for a job with the RMN...
July 27, 2008
8:11 a.m.
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geewhiz writes:
Interesting to see LargeMarge has a need to belittle navymom for caring and appears to think her own cause, nitpicking headlines, is somehow more admirable.
July 27, 2008
11:12 a.m.
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brownman writes:
Large_Marge, you choose to critique the writing of others yet your grasp and comprehension of the English language is shaky and your failure to fully read what is in front of you before passing judgment is completely irresponsible.
"may have drowned", as gee_whiz posted above, infers that the cause of death may have been from drowning, but no one knows for sure.
If this still doesn't make sense to you, call your fourth grade English teacher and ask for a refund...
July 27, 2008
6:31 p.m.
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InHisName writes:
Stop bickering over a headline. There was a drowning and someone died. Rest in peace.
July 27, 2008
8:01 p.m.
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JonBen writes:
LargeMarge: Get a life.
July 27, 2008
8:26 p.m.
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Finding_Forever writes:
I think Large_Marge is talking about the webmaster when she says "online guy." Anyway, who cares? A teen lost her life this weekend. She will never get a chance to finish high school, get married, have a family, grow old and enjoy life. Its a sad state of affairs when the headline of an article overshadows such an awful incident.
July 28, 2008
6:04 a.m.
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blacksho89 writes:
The headline is accurate.
We know that this young girl is dead. We do NOT know the cause of that death. Perhaps she had a stroke, or heart failure. We do not know because the coroner has not told us. Therefore, we can not say that she drowned.
July 28, 2008
5:49 p.m.
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redwhiteandBLUE writes:
So who was this little girl ?
July 31, 2008
12:10 p.m.
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adrianacasillas9206 writes:
My family and I are very close friends of the victims family and we know the lifeguards were not around to perform CPR on her. Please anyone out there who witnessed this incident report it to the police. The lifeguards should be charged with negligence. Even if it was or wasn't a drowning they should have been at the scene.
July 31, 2008
2:14 p.m.
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maf110 writes:
I agree with blacksho89. I read a slightly more detailed article about this death, (can't find it now) and the details we're NOT getting is how long she was under water. If it was only for a minute or so, it seems inconcieveable that she could have died from being under water for such a short time. Especially if they got to her so right away, and got the water out of her lungs the correct way. With what I've learned about the latest in cpr, she should have been sitting up and coughing by the time the ambulance arrived.
However, if she was under water for 4-5 minutes, different story. Not too many people come back from that. Survival rate declines dramatically. So if they really got her out that quick, it may have been more along the lines of a heart attack or stroke. Can we please get some details as to what really happened?!