Boy, 6, attending birthday party nearly drowns in Santa Rosa apartment pool

A 6-year-old Santa Rosa boy was pulled from the bottom of an apartment complex pool Sunday and saved by bystanders, according to a Rincon Valley fire official.

The boy apparently had been dropped off at the Estancia Apartments on Old Redwood Highway in Larkfield for a Sunday afternoon birthday party, Fred Leuenberger, acting battalion chief for Rincon Valley Fire, said Monday.

“The kids went to the pool. It sounds like they were unattended and he ended up at the bottom,” Leuenberger said. “Thankfully some bystanders were there.”

Someone brought the unresponsive boy out of the pool and he was given CPR. He eventually coughed up pool water and began breathing. Rincon Valley firefighters were called about 1:40 p.m. and arrived with an AMR ambulance crew. The boy was conscious when firefighters and paramedics arrived but was too upset to offer his name. As the ambulance took him to the hospital firefighters determined his identity and contacted his mother, Leuenberger said.

It wasn’t clear whether the boy could swim, he said.

Randi Rossmann