Habersham County Emergency Services personnel responded to two nonfatal child drownings over the Independence Day holiday.
Emergency personnel were called to the first nonfatal drowning at 2:45 p.m. Tuesday after a two-year-old child was taken to a local fire station after falling into the pool at a Cornelia apartment complex.
The child was conscious and was not transported for medical care.
The second drowning in the area of Sam Bell Road outside of Clarkesville involved a one-year-old child who had jumped into the water and was under for an unknown amount of time at around 7:30 p.m.
The one-year-old was also conscious and was transported by ambulance to Northeast Georgia Medical Center in Gainesville.
Both children survived the non-fatal drownings, which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says can have a variety of outcomes, from the victim having no injuries to having serious injuries such as brain damage or a permanent disability.
In a press release, Habersham County said the CDC also reports more children ages 1 to 4 die from drowning than any other cause of death, and drowning is the second leading cause of unintentional injury death after motor vehicle crashes for children ages 5 to 14.
The county provided tips to prevent tragedies around water.
The county suggested emptying tubs, buckets, containers, and kids' pools immediately after use and storing them upside down and out of the reach of children, considering installing fences around home pools that surround the entire pool and are at least four feet tall with self-closing and self latch gates and watching children in or around the pool with no distractions.
The county emphasized that young children can drown in as little as one inch of water and that learning basic swimming, CPR and water rescue skills could prevent drownings in the future.
