It was on Saturday, February 6th, 2021 when the Beech Island near-drowning was first reported. Riggs Lindsay, a five-year-old boy from North Augusta, was found unresponsive in the swimming pool of the family's Grady Lane home.
It was Riggs' aunt who encountered and retrieved the young boy from the water. A call was placed to 911 while the grandmother, who was also present at the home, administered CPR. Emergency units arrived and took over the resuscitation efforts. It is reported that they were able to remove significant volumes of water from Riggs but still he did not respond. Efforts to save his life continued while he was transported to the Children’s Hospital of Georgia.
A week later, on February 13th, Riggs would finally succumb to his injuries.
The public announcement was made by Aiken County Coroner Darryl Ables, who had been called out to the hospital early Saturday morning after Lindsay passed. The Aiken County Sheriff's Office was not considering the incident a criminal case, though an autopsy was nevertheless scheduled to be completed in nearby Newberry, SC.
Via Facebook, Riggs' mother Lindsay acknowledged the support of the community during the difficult time and asked only for continued prayer.
Whenever a life is lost in a swimming pool drowning accident, surviving family members are left to deal with the deep pain of personal loss. Even worse, all-too-often they are also overcome by the substantial expenses associated with such incidents.
Mounting medical bills are only one of the factors that add to the stress experienced by a mourning family; lost income can place even more weight on the shoulders of survivors. One of the few avenues that victims have for obtaining the compensation that covers all of these unexpected expenses is by filing a drowning accident lawsuit.
However, not every drowning or pool accident offers grounds for taking legal action. For this reason, it's important to understand how the facts of your case can affect the potential compensation amount. In a free legal consultation, our experienced drowning accident lawyers can analyze your case and explain the legal options available to you.
A drowning accident law firm such as the Aquatic Attorneys isn't just a team of experienced personal injury lawyers. We are intimately familiar with state-level regulations affecting drowning cases; most importantly, we have the case results to speak to our experience. To date, we've achieved hundreds of millions of dollars in compensation for our clients. Our case successes have also led to the enactment of new legislation intended to curb pool accidents.
Negligent pool and property owners who do not take the necessary steps to protect their visitors have to be held responsible for their carelessness if it results in injury or wrongful death. Civil law permits individuals to make mistakes and learn from them, but what it does not tolerate is negligence or the lack of reasonable action. If negligence is allowed to go unchecked, it is only a matter of time before it makes victims of other unsuspecting persons. In the context of swimming pools, hot tubs, or even beaches, these unsuspecting victims are likely to be young children - young children who deserve safe aquatic spaces in which to relax and grow.
When negligence in aquatic environments leads to drownings, near-drownings, or other aquatic injuries, our attorneys are prepared to fight for victim's rights.
