Aussie dad's tragic plea after boy, 3, drowns in neighbour's pool
A Perth father has issued a desperate plea to homeowners after his three-year-old son was found lifeless in a neighbour’s swimming pool.
The Powell family had only just moved into their new home in Livingston, in the city’s south, when little Isaac disappeared on Thursday afternoon.
After a 15-minute agonising search for the toddler, the neighbour’s children found him in their pool. His dad Stephen Powell says he’d slipped through a fence between the two properties on Spyglass Avenue.
His mother performed CPR on her son until police arrived to take over.
“He was just playing in the backyard right and he managed to find a hole in the fence,” Mr Powell told Nine News. “He’s gone through to the neighbours’ house. I haven’t even met them yet, I don’t know them at all. And he’s fallen in their pool."
Mr Powell is now pleading with people to make sure their backyards are safe.
“If you’ve got a pool, maintain your fences,” he said.
He also added that the people who found him “didn’t know CPR".
“I’m not saying it could’ve saved him, but it’s better than just doing nothing.”
Tragedy occurred on mother’s birthday
On Monday evening, Isaac’s family made their heartbreaking decision to switch off his life support, four days after the tragic accident which fell on his mother’s birthday.
His mum Zahra had been busy trying to get everything organised for a family get-together at the family’s new home when she realised Isaac was missing.
“Every future birthday she will be haunted by the death of her three-year-old son,” the boy’s aunt Umma Bakri wrote on Facebook. “Rather than celebrating New Year’s, my family and I have been at the Perth Children’s Hospital with my sister and her husband having to make the tough decision to take Isaac off life support.”
“A tragedy like this was preventable and a small child should be safe in the boundaries of his/her home.”
A GoFundMe page has since been set up to support Isaac’s parents “to support them during this difficult time".
“We thought we would start this page to support them during this difficult time by reducing the stress of having to fund Isaac’s final resting place and service,” organiser Jonathan Van Omme wrote online. “No one ever imagines that they will lose a child and plans to save money for this occasion.”
Since it was launched on Tuesday, more than $31,000 has been raised.
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