Drowning

Before you take your kids out to take a dip next Spring, check to make sure the (public, private or residential) pool has safe drain covers. Children have been terribly injured, paralyzed and died after the suction of a pool's drain has trapped them underwater. In one incident, it took two adults to pull a young girl from a hot tub. Despite their efforts, she passed away. Though a federal law went into effect in December, not all states are properly enforcing it so parents should take precautions.

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A quick-thinking dad was able to save his 3-year-old daughter when she was sucked down a storm drain after the family's English neighborhood flooded. Mark Baxter heard his tot and glanced over expecting to see the lil girl standing with his wife and older daughter. Panicked when she wasn't, he reached down the drain to feel only water and guessed it flowed to the nearby river. The father ran over to find Leona floating face down and, luckily, was able to revive her.

Photographs published yesterday showing Italian sunbathers going about their sun soaking despite the nearby corpses of two drowned Roma children are causing a splash across all of Italy. The two girls, both younger than 15, drowned Saturday in strong currents despite rescue efforts, and the bodies were laid in the sun awaiting emergency services.

One of the ambulance drivers said, "we picked up the bodies amid total indifference." An Italian newspaper says, "while the lifeless bodies of the girls were still on the sand, there were those who carried on sunbathing or having lunch just a few meters away." Lunch.

The incident is a graphic pictorial display of tension between the ethnic Romas (also called Gypsies), and other locals. Recent crackdowns on the population, combined with the controversy surrounding the current census, has led to a visit by a European human rights group who heard of the plan to fingerprint all Roma, including children. Some have compared this idea (which is on hold for now) to the Nazi treatment of the Jews.

What's behind the tension? To find out, read more