CROFTON, Md. — In June, 2006, 5-year-old Connor went swimming at a public pool.
He was found that day floating in the five feet of water beneath the lifeguard chair.
Debbie Neagle-Freed lost her son to a drowning 16 years ago.
"Unfortunately, back in 2006, it was June 22nd,” Neagle-Freed said. “He went to a public pool and unfortunately he was found floating in five feet of water beneath the lifeguard chair that day."
Ever since Neagle-Freed’s young child died in the pool, the went on a mission to advocate for safety in the water for children.
She felt that pain of losing a child.
Neagle-Freed said all it took was the caretaker looking after Connor, and it just took a few minutes to become distracted.
"It's so easy to turn your head for a minute,” Neagle-Freed said. “Two minutes and that's all it takes and your child is underwater, and within minutes they could drown and be brain damaged."
At the time, Connor had just graduated from kindergarten.
Neagle-Freed said the drowning was preventable if proper training had been given at the pool.
"He was resuscitated with CPR and then he went into cardiac arrest and the pool had an AED, but in 2006, they weren't trained how to use it,” she said. “So unfortunately, too much time went by and we lost him to drowning."
After researching drowning statistics, Neagle-Freed learned that drowning is the leading cause of accidental death in children ages 1 to 4 years old.
"I thought we need to do something to raise awareness," Neagle-Freed said. "I, as a parent that day, if I would have known these statistics, I probably would not have let him go to the pool with somebody other than a family member."
Connor's Law was created and then passed in 2017, more than a decade after Connor's drowning death.
"So, Connor's Law mandates that every public pool, only in Maryland so far, to require AED's on site, and more importantly, with trained personnel, it has to be used within three minutes," Neagle-Freed said.
Connor's Law is now a required training for the American Red Cross in Maryland, and another tool to keep children safe in the water.
"Well, honestly first and foremost, supervision, supervision is No. 1 and extra layers of protection," Neagle-Freed said. "Get your kids into swimming lessons. All kids need to learn how to swim. A fence around your pool, learning CPR and having AED's on site."
Neagle-Freed is working to get the law passed in Florida and eventually in all 50 states.
To learn more about Connor's Law, visit Connor Cares Foundation.
With it being Labor Day weekend this weekend, thousands of people will be in the water in Maryland.
