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LOCAL
The Champion, Thursday, July 9 - 15, 2015
Mom wants answers in
son’s near drowning
From left, Melissa Sloan has questions about her son Brionne’s near
drowning. Photos provided
by Andrew Cauthen
andrew@dekalb champ, com
An investigation is un
der way into what happened
when a boy nearly drowned
at Browns Mill Aquatic Cen
ter June 22.
Fourteen-year-old Bri-
onne Sloan was playing in
the pool with friends when
he became unconscious and
nearly drowned. No one
yet has offered an explana
tion as to what caused his
trauma.
“He doesn’t remember
anything,” Melissa Sloan
said about her son. “He just
remembers dropping.”
Brionne “went over five
minutes without oxygen to
his brain,” Sloan said. “My
son had passed away, and he
came back. He was gone. He
was not breathing.”
The unconscious boy,
who will be attending Redan
High School in the fall, was
pulled out of the pool by
two men—“civilians,” not
the lifeguards, Sloan said.
“Some lady—I don’t
know her name—she decid
ed to rub and pat his back
and she revived him—not
the lifeguards,” Sloan said.
“I owe her my life,” Sloan
said. “My kids are my life.
She’s a hero. He would have
died. Nobody that worked
there did anything.”
Sloan said she and her
family were at the pool for
less than an hour when she
heard a commotion. An
other patron said a boy was
in trauma.
“I didn’t know it was my
son,” Sloan said when she
saw Brionne. “His face was
blue.”
“He still has some trau
ma to his lungs,” Sloan said
on June 25, the day Brionne
was released from Children’s
Healthcare of Atlanta—Eg-
leston. “He’s got some issues
with his eyes. He’s having
some headaches, and he told
us this morning about these
[bad] dreams he having.”
Sloan said she is con
cerned that the lifeguards
were not properly trained.
“I don’t understand, I
can’t begin to understand it,”
Sloan said. “The lifeguard
didn’t know the address of
the waterpark.”
The lifeguards also did
not appear to know CPR,
she said.
In one of the four 911
recordings released to The
Champion, a male said, “I’m
a lifeguard, and we just have
a child who just passed out
here. We need y’all.. .right
now.”
When the 911 operator
asked for the address of the
incident, the lifeguard can
be heard asking someone,
“Hey, what the address,
bro?”
He immediately told the
operator the incident ad
dress is “Browns Mill Road
at Browns Mill waterpark.”
The operator, who knew
of at least one of the other
calls from the waterpark
asked the lifeguard, “This
has nothing to do with a
drowning? It’s just a child
fainting?”
The lifeguard answered,
“I believe it’s both at the
same time.”
The operator told the
lifeguard that she needed
clarification because there
are different instructions
for each incident. She asked
him whether he can get
close to the victim.
“I need to know what
happened,” the operator
stated.
“I have no idea,” the life
guard said, adding that the
male had vomited. “The life
guard that was on duty told
me a guy drowned and then
he gets him out of the water
and he unconscious. Me and
my coworkers are with him
right now.. .this man is un
conscious we cannot get him
to wake up.”
Later in the conversa
tion, the operator told the
lifeguard that another 911
operator is on the phone
with another caller from
the scene who is receiving
CPR instructions to help the
male.
“Ma’am.. .we need some
body here like now,” the life
guard said.
“Sir, listen. They’re al
ready on the way,” the opera
tor said. “One of your other
people are there talking with
a 911 operator giving some
one CPR instructions. Ok?”
Sloan said she is inter
ested in the call DeKalb of
ficials have not released.
“No one has heard the
final call,” she said. “It’s the
call of them giving CPR
instructions to a lifeguard
over the phone. That to me
is probably the most crucial
one; you’re giving instruc
tions to someone who
should already know.
“Somebody needs to be
trained, educated and held
accountable,” Sloan said.
“My son survived. Some
body else’s son may not.”
Sloan said pool workers
“missed the severity of what
was going on.” They offered
rainchecks to patrons before
her son was off the property.
“Even we were offered
a raincheck,” she said. “I’ll
never go back there.”
Lifeguard services at
Browns Mills are provided
by USA Management LLC.
According to the USA
Pools’ contract with the
county, USA Pools scope
of work includes “lifeguard
supervision for public swim
ming.” Lifeguard “must have
current lifeguard training
certification, as well as CPR
and first aid certification.”
USA Pools also is re
quired by the contract to
log in-service on lifeguard
training and submit the logs
to the county each week.
The Champion filed an
Open Records Request for
weekly lifeguard training
in-service logs and proof
of certification for all life
guards used by USA Man
agement.
A county attorney re
plied stating that the in
formation would not be
released because it is part of
an ongoing investigation.
Brionne was admitted to Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta—Egleston
after nearly drowning at Brown’s Mill Aquatic Center in June.