A six-year-old boy has tragically drowned on his first day at a summer camp.
Michael Stewart was spotted unresponsive in a swimming pool at the camp by a lifeguard, who pulled him out of the water, on Monday (24 Jun) afternoon.
Staff called the emergency services and tried to revive him with CPR as they waited for help.
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Emergency Medical Technicians arrived at the scene a short while later and took Stewart to hospital by ambulance.
Doctors at Virtua Hospital in Mount Holly, New Jersey, US, tried to resuscitate the boy, but despite their best efforts, they couldn’t save his life.
A social worker was later called to the camp to counsel the children, aged four and above, who’d witnessed the horror unfold.
Liberty Lake Day Camp director and owner Andy Pritikin called the incident a “senseless tragedy”.
He said: “According to protocol, there are three lifeguards in chairs at the little pool, with a fourth roving lifeguard.”
As such, “there’s a lot of questions…that I may never be able to answer. Like, ‘What exactly happened? How long was he underwater for?’”
Stewart lived in nearby Lumberton with his family, as reported on Need To Know.
He’d confounded doctors by making a full recovery from an extremely premature birth.
His devastated mum, Enjoli Stewart, said: “Someone asked me how my day was going.
“I told them about Michael and how he had fallen asleep the night before with his goggles on. He was excited about swimming.
“And then my phone rang and I was told I needed to rush to Mount Holly-Virtua.”
The Burlington County Prosecutor’s Office and the Mansfield Township Police Department are investigating the case.
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