Statement from NCL on drowning on GEM

[e150club]

Wrong! There needs to be blame so this does not happen again.

Blame who? Unfortunately many kids will drown in their back yard pool this summer. it happens every year with people watching the pool.

[amarvel]

This makes me so sad. My heart breaks for them. We also left on Saturday and have two kids who love to go swimming. I could not image.

[mjkacmom]

It is easy to take a hard line on something like this and assert blame. However, one cannot simply assign BLAME and expect something like this to NEVER happen again. Teach your kids to swim. I was a lifeguard for 7 years and taught water safety and lifeguard training for several years after my life guard days. I can't tell you how many times I have seen children (from 3-99) get in the water that have no clue how to stay afloat. This is not a cruise line issue. Swimming is a life skill and every person can and should learn how - my dog can swim, so can your 6 yr old or 40 yr old. Please, parents, before you cruise make sure your children can swim. If they are not comfortable in the water, prepare them by giving them lessons. If they do not want to learn or if you do not want to teach them, then they cannot be left alone near a pool.

 

So many other factors go into drowning. A person/child can be hurt, have a medical episode or are pull under by another person etc. It is a silent killer. You will never hear someone drown.

 

The number one cause of accidental death in children are car accidents - so many parents embrace car seat safety. The second is drowning, and the number one preventive measure are swim lessons. Car seats and swim lessons should be non-negotiables.

[spidybabe]

Those poor people will "replay" the situation in their mind ... for the rest of their lives.

 

My heart breaks for the family---no matter what happened--- life will never be the same for them again. Unfortunatly SissasMomE is correct---they will have to live with this horror everyday of their lives.

Sad day

RIP

[BeagleOne]

It's been written about drownings where the person simply quietly goes lifeless under the water unnoticed. Not everyone flails their arms and hollers out for help.

 

I post this whenever I read a story like this. Be sure to watch the video link at the end. It shows a child starting to drown with people all around him, none of whom realizes what is happening. Fortunately a life guard rescues him before it's too late.

 

http://mariovittone.com/2010/05/154/

 

I'd also like to suggest to everyone who is physically and mentally capable of learning CPR...PLEASE LEARN CPR!!!! It doesn't take long to learn, and you might save a life. If nobody on-scene does anything, by the time the medical people get there, it could be too late.

Edited May 19, 2015 by BeagleOne

[zscfan]

I just got off of the Jade, the Gem's sister ship on Saturday. I'm am so saddened to hear this and am praying for the family.

[antsnanny]

Are there lifeguards on any of the cruise lines ships?

 

Disney, to the best of my knowledge is the only one I know of. NCL and RCCl have pool staff that tries to make sure the children in the water are supervised by an adult. I have seen them ask a child where there parents are.

 

I trust no one buy myself with my kids and now with my grandkids, no lifeguard loves them like I do, so I don't take my eyes off of them at all and Im on the edge of the pool or in with them.

[newmexicoNita]

Wrong! There needs to be blame so this does not happen again.

 

absoutely not. There is no way to put total blame on anyone. We have no idea what really happened except accidents happen everyday. If it was a simple as you are saying, there would have been no drowning this time. Many times in the past blame has been put on someone and still these things happen.

[DaisyGoldberg]

Thank you Beagleone -- everybody should check out that video and pass it along to friends and family. THAT is how people drown surrounded by a hundred people. A video is worth a thousand words (but the professionals provide words and context as well)

 

The child is saved, so don't be put off watching it.

[newmexicoNita]

The number one cause of accidental death in children are car accidents - so many parents embrace car seat safety. The second is drowning, and the number one preventive measure are swim lessons. Car seats and swim lessons should be non-negotiables.

 

Even then it isn't as simple as it soundl: we had the horrible experience of a child drowning in our back yard pool. We were on vacation, we allowed our daughter to have her child's birthday party at our home while we were gone. The child that drowned knew how to swim and had just completely his second round of lessons. 2 of the 10 adults at the party had life guard training and had worked as life guards in the past. The child's father was there, no one had even had a drop of alcohol. it just happened, and to this day, no one knows what really happened. This was about 25 years ago. I agree with you about both car seats and swim lessons, but accidents will still happen.

[newmexicoNita]

This is the second drowning (with a near fatal one) for NCL in a year and a half. Will be interesting to see how NCL responds. After the Breakaway drowning their "solution" was to make the pools on that class ship adult only. Now with this one it seems their best 3 options is to make pools of certain depths on all classes adult only, staff pools better or hire part time life guards to monitor the pool during high traffic time periods.

 

Sympathies to the family and here's hoping that NCL does the right thing with regards to their pool policies.

 

OMG, what do you know about what really happened? All we know is a family is mourning the loss of their child, people on the ship are sad and we are praying for heeling for the family and you want to put the blame on someone. Now, could you tell us how many cruise lines have you been on where they have life guards?

[wichitastatecruiser]

OMG, what do you know about what really happened? All we know is a family is mourning the loss of their child, people on the ship are sad and we are praying for heeling for the family and you want to put the blame on someone. Now, could you tell us how many cruise lines have you been on where they have life guards?

 

Where in my statement was I blaming anyone. There have been 3 drowned and 3 near drowned in the 3 years. Of those 2 of the drowned and 1 near drowned have been on NCL. At the very least NCL needs to supervise the area or put security measures in place to help another tragedy from happening. If cruise companies would put surveillance cameras in pool areas it would at least help determine what happened and how to prevent accidents in the future instead of it being unknown what happened as has been the case with a majority of the cruise ship incidences.

Edited May 19, 2015 by wichitastatecruiser

[wndmom]

Where in my statement was I blaming anyone. There have been 3 drowned and 3 near drowned in the 3 years. Of those 2 of the drowned and 1 near drowned have been on NCL. At the very least NCL needs to supervise the area or put security measures in place to help another tragedy from happening. If cruise companies would put surveillance cameras in pool areas it would at least help determine what happened and how to prevent accidents in the future instead of it being unknown what happened as has been the case with a majority of the cruise ship incidences.

 

 

I think all cruise lines should have lifeguards. I can't understand why they don't.

[gold1953]

A fact is that more children who have had some swimming lessons drown than those with no skills. Parents tend to relax and trust a child more who has had lessons . Both child and parent are far more cautious if they cannot swim.

Just so sad for this family.......... and I am sure they will blame themselves and live with guilt

[mjkacmom]

Even then it isn't as simple as it soundl: we had the horrible experience of a child drowning in our back yard pool. We were on vacation, we allowed our daughter to have her child's birthday party at our home while we were gone. The child that drowned knew how to swim and had just completely his second round of lessons. 2 of the 10 adults at the party had life guard training and had worked as life guards in the past. The child's father was there, no one had even had a drop of alcohol. it just happened, and to this day, no one knows what really happened. This was about 25 years ago. I agree with you about both car seats and swim lessons, but accidents will still happen.

 

I agree with you. Children get hurt and/or killed in car accidents even if they are properly secured. All one can do is to try and reduce the chance.

[Illyria]

Where in my statement was I blaming anyone. There have been 3 drowned and 3 near drowned in the 3 years. Of those 2 of the drowned and 1 near drowned have been on NCL. At the very least NCL needs to supervise the area or put security measures in place to help another tragedy from happening. If cruise companies would put surveillance cameras in pool areas it would at least help determine what happened and how to prevent accidents in the future instead of it being unknown what happened as has been the case with a majority of the cruise ship incidences.

Dozens of kids drown or almost drown every year in swimming pools in their homes or apartment complexes/clubhouses. A kid can drown in a bucket of water, for that matter. The fact that with thousands of kids on cruise ships every year, there only have been 6 incidents like that, is actually an amazing statistic.

 

It's an unfortunate truth that unless someone (preferably a parent) is LITERALLY watching the kid in the pool the entire time, it can take just a few seconds for them to quietly go underwater and not come up.

[Irene7]

The important question is: Where are the parents? Leave their duties up to a lifeguard? I do agree that there should be life guards, but the parents must assume some responsibility for their own children.

 

I have never seen anyone watching out at the pools so the photo of the crew member by the pool must be new. NCL does not have certified lifeguards. As far as I know, only DCL has them at the family and children's pools. I do agree that parents should be the first to watch out for their child's safety and a life is a back up and not the other way around.

 

So sad and my prayers are with the family.

[Irene7]

No lifeguards but they do have crew watching over the pool as the gentleman in yellow in this picture is doing. Unfortunately tragedies do happen and my heart breaks for the family.

 

 

Do you know when this photo was taken?

[mjkacmom]

Dozens of kids drown or almost drown every year in swimming pools in their homes or apartment complexes/clubhouses. A kid can drown in a bucket of water, for that matter. The fact that with thousands of kids on cruise ships every year, there only have been 6 incidents like that, is actually an amazing statistic.

 

It's an unfortunate truth that unless someone (preferably a parent) is LITERALLY watching the kid in the pool the entire time, it can take just a few seconds for them to quietly go underwater and not come up.

 

An average of 2 children per day drown in the US every year.

[OnTheGoMom921]

Such a terrible tragedy. Thoughts and prayers are with the family. So sad to hear this on the news today. :(

[russianmom]

Do you know when this photo was taken?

 

The yellow shirted "pool watchers" were on Breakaway last Sept. I asked if they were lifeguards and they said no but they are just there to watch and monitor the pool area.

[iuki]

Where in my statement was I blaming anyone. There have been 3 drowned and 3 near drowned in the 3 years. Of those 2 of the drowned and 1 near drowned have been on NCL. At the very least NCL needs to supervise the area or put security measures in place to help another tragedy from happening. If cruise companies would put surveillance cameras in pool areas it would at least help determine what happened and how to prevent accidents in the future instead of it being unknown what happened as has been the case with a majority of the cruise ship incidences.

 

I commend you for offering a suggestion to possibly prevent future drowning situations, rather than placing the blame on parents or cruise lines. It is a wonderful idea to have surveillance cameras in the pool areas. Rather than have a lifeguard, a staff member could be monitoring the cameras with direct mobile contact to notify another staff member, in the pool area, of a possible situation happening or if a child appears to be without supervision and, like you stated, it could be a learning tool to help prevent future situations. When people see lifeguards, they let their guards down in keeping a closer watch on their children, because they feel safer that someone trained to save lives is nearby in case of an emergency. I can barely swim and WILL NOT let my great-grandchildren swim in our pool unless my husband or daughter is there to watch them - and the children are great swimmers. My heart goes out to the family who will forever blame themselves just as any parent who loses a child in any form of accident. I lost a grandchild in a freak accident and am very much aware of what families go through when a child dies unexpectedly in an accident. I will keep that family in my prayers. So very sad.

[antsnanny]

Where in my statement was I blaming anyone. There have been 3 drowned and 3 near drowned in the 3 years. Of those 2 of the drowned and 1 near drowned have been on NCL. At the very least NCL needs to supervise the area or put security measures in place to help another tragedy from happening. If cruise companies would put surveillance cameras in pool areas it would at least help determine what happened and how to prevent accidents in the future instead of it being unknown what happened as has been the case with a majority of the cruise ship incidences.

 

On the Gem this winter there was supervision around the pool area, not lifeguards but staff making sure the children were at the pool with parents or a guardian. I was just on RCCL Quantum and it was the exact same thing.

[jaja]

My heart is aching for the family...

[antsnanny]

I think all cruise lines should have lifeguards. I can't understand why they don't.

 

I think they would have to have several because of the amount of people and the fact that the pools are so crowded. I believe each child or at the most every 2 children in water at any time or place deserves the utmost attention of an adult who is just focused on them. When I watch any child in the pool I always know when they go underwater and wait for them to come back up. Needless to stay they can't stay under too long without me going to investigate.