Drowning Happens When You Least Expect It

When You Least Expect It

November 2022 | Since 1918, Cook Children's has built a strong reputation for providing excellent medical care for all those who enter our doors. But we're also making great strides in helping children before they're sick or injured.

Injury prevention is the major focus of The Center for Children's Health at Cook Children's. Our goal? To make the North Texas region one of the healthiest places to raise a child.

One of the center's key programs is Lifeguard Your Child®. With Safe Kids North Texas – Fort Worth and additional community partners across 11 counties, this year-round program offers drowning prevention education, Water Watcher tags, swim lessons, life jackets and other resources to families.

At the beginning of 2022, Cook Children's unfortunately treated more than 20 children for drowning injuries, three resulted in deaths. This was a record number of drownings for the time period. It was clear - this year's drowning prevention and community awareness efforts were absolutely critical.

Drowning Is Silent

This year's #lifeguardyourchild initiatives concentrated on unplanned swim time, life jacket use and bath tub safety.

Awareness efforts reached more than 4.8 million viewers on Facebook and over 27,000 viewers on YouTube. Additionally, a public display on the medical center lawn featured a clothesline with hanging swimsuits to represent the swimming pool drowning patients treated this year. It also included rubber duckies to represent the five children who drowned in bathtubs.

Thankfully, this summer, there were fewer drownings treated at Cook Children's compared to 2021.

Explore how to #lifeguardyourchild

Drowning Happens When You Least Expect It

Discover more