Twin toddlers, a boy and a girl, just 18 months old, drowned in their home swimming pool when their great-grandmother, who suffers from Alzheimer’s, left the back door open at their home in Oklahoma City, USA.
When mother Jenny Callazzo found her 18-month-old children, Locklyn and Loreli, at the bottom of the pool’s murky water Thursday morning, they were unconscious.
The two children were pronounced dead two hours later at the hospital, the Daily Mail reported.
Callazzo, a boutique owner, lives in the $565,000 home with her grandmother, six children and husband Sonny, 42, a marketing executive.
How the twins drowned in the pool in Oklahoma
A relative told the Daily Mail that the children’s great-grandmother, who suffers from Alzheimer’s, left the back door of the house open. The twins apparently went outside and fell into the pool.
Aerial footage of the home showed a greenish pool filled with algae-filled water.
Police are investigating the twins’ deaths, but do not believe they believe it was a criminal act, but a freak accident.
A few days ago, 37-year-old Callazzo posted photos of her twins outside the house with the caption “they just want to play in the yard.”
Neighbors said they saw the desperate mother-of-twins get into the back of an ambulance as paramedics battled to save her children.
Silent drowning and what parents of young children should do in homes with swimming pools
Laura Gamino, injury prevention co-ordinator told the Mail she hopes parents realize how deadly water can be for young children.
“Anything can happen in an instant,” he warned. “Kids are attracted to water and toddlers won’t have the skills to be able to help themselves out of water … Drowning is very sudden and it’s silent. People think that a child in trouble in the water will cry out, but he can’t because his mouth is full of water. So drowning is silent, and it’s scary.”
He also urged owners of homes with swimming pools to install a 4m high fence around their swimming pools with a gate that small children cannot open.
Tags: #18monthold twins dead Greatgrandmother Alzheimers left door open drowned pool
