Connor Cares Foundation Teams Up with Collier County for Water Safety

“More children die from drowning than they do in car accidents,” said Debbie Freed, founder of the Connor Cares Foundation. It’s one of the many statistics she knows by heart, statistics she learned in the most tragic of ways, the death of her son, Connor.

In 2006, Connor Freed went to a country club pool with lifeguards present but drowned underneath an empty lifeguard chair in five feet of water. A patron started CPR and Connor’s lungs were cleared of water, but he went into cardiac arrest. “Where Connor’s incident happened, they did have an AED at the pool, and unfortunately they were not allowed to use it back in 2006 due to lack of training,” Freed said. “When I became aware of that I thought ‘let me start getting AED’s,’ and started the Connor Cares Foundation. We started raising money and donating AEDs to all the public pools in Maryland.”

It’s unthinkable that anyone could move on after such a loss, but Freed made it her mission to raise awareness on childhood drowning to honor Connor’s memory. “When I lost him, I wasn’t sure what I was going to do,” she explains. “But when I started to research drowning statistics, it was heartbreaking. “We started raising money and donating AEDs to all the public pools in Maryland,” she said.

“With an AED, you have a 98% survival rate for someone in cardiac arrest,” Freed explained. “If you are using CPR alone, you have about a 38% chance to live. So, if an AED is used within three minutes - that is the key – it has to be used within three minutes and accessible, 98% (can be saved) and their survival rate goes up with no brain damage.”

Freed’s mission expanded when she moved to get a law passed that would require every public and semi-public school in Maryland to have an AED unit – with trained staff – on site. Freed relentlessly pursued Connor’s Law at all levels of government. After five years – and spending a full day waiting outside her Congressman’s office – Connor’s Law was passed in July 2012.

“It was the last day of session and I was not going to leave,” Freed remembers.

Less than a week after the law passed, the first AED that Freed donated saved the life of a five-year-old. “Connor was watching over him from his lifeguard chair in heaven” Freed said.

But getting Connor’s Law passed in Maryland is just the beginning. “My end vision? I want Connor’s Law to be Federal.”

According to the Florida Department of Health, drowning is the leading cause of death in children ages one to four, making Florida number one in the nation for this grim statistic. With over 1.2 million public and private pools, Debbie saw a need in Florida for Connor’s Law. Networking helped her find a partner. “A mutual friend of ours here in Collier County connected us,” said Commissioner Rick LoCastro. “And I do have a passion for safety. After hearing Debbie’s story, how could you not want to be a part of this? We are not going to be able to move forward in the state of Florida without working together and figuring out what went right in Maryland and what could have been done faster. The Connor Cares Foundation made it easier to get organized and bring this to the table in Florida.”

Freed and Denise Giacobba, President of the Connor Cares Foundation, made a trip to Naples to donate an AED in Connor’s memory. “We have well over 100 AED’s all over Collier County in pools and our parks,” LoCastro explains. “It’s not just about (Debbie) donating an AED to the county, which is very generous. This is a catalyst to start several different things.”

Dan Rodriguez, Public Services Department Head, agrees. “This is a great opportunity for the county to do a reassessment of our current operations. Is there a potential certification program we can incorporate so that both the parents get certified in AED use while the child gets certified in swimming?”

“We have one of the best EMS programs, nationally awarded several times, that help with the training of our AED’s,” continues Rodriguez. “They offer training not only in CPR but AEDs for our county employees but there may be opportunities also where we can use this technology to train the public on a regular basis so everyone knows there is a certain day, they can come to a community pool or community park, and we offer free CPR and AED training. So those are some of the initiatives we can bring into the county and resource that effectively. These are opportunities that we here in Collier County could initiate to enhance and improve upon a good program and make it great.”

And Collier County’s current program is very robust.

“There are prerequisites all our lifeguard candidates go through just to get into the course,” explains Olema Edwards, Regional Manager. “They have to swim 300 yards continuously doing front crawl and breast stroke; tread water for two minutes only using their legs; swim 20 yards; surface dive seven to 14 feet and retrieve a 10-pound brick then swim on their back with both hands on the brick; and they have to exit the water not using the stairs.” Edwards has high praise for the high school and college aged students that join the American Red Cross training program. “Being a lifeguard – it’s not just a cool job to them. They take it seriously. They know the responsibility that goes along with it. They provide other kinds of first aid and enforce rules to keep everyone safe. And they have AED and CPR training, too.” Even after certification there is monthly, ongoing training and, for the past two years, the county has paid to make them instructors who in turn, teach others to become lifeguards… at no cost. “The county will train anyone at any pool,” said Edwards.

Rigorous training isn’t the only plan the county has in place to stop drowning deaths. Collier County was the first community pool in the Southeast to use the WAVE Drowning Detection System. “Adults, children and babies get a device that’s put on their head or goggles,” Edwards explained. “If you are under water an alarm will sound.” The system was deployed at the aquatic facility at Donna Fiala Eagle Lakes Community Park.

AED’s, trained lifeguards, and detection systems are just one area used to prevent drownings. “The ultimate first layer of protection is knowing how to swim,” said Giacobba. “Commissioner LoCastro is trying to expand the law to include funding for children who may not have access to swim lessons. That is the ultimate first layer of protection. That is much more of a preventative way. (The AED’s) are a reactive way and we need both.”

In partnership with the NCH Safe and Healthy Children’s Coalition of Collier County, swimming lessons are offered for adults and children, separately or as part of a child/parent class. It’s part of a layered approach to prevent drownings. SWIM Central provides ten 30-minute lessons over a two-week period.

“We can be the lead county to get Connor’s Law rolling,” said LoCastro. “I feel fortunate and blessed that a mutual friend of ours brought us together. I am very proud of our staff here – we won’t sit on our hands.”

For more information on the Connor Cares Foundation, go to their website: connorcaresfoundation.org or their Facebook page. To learn more about water safety and swimming lessons go to NCH Safe and Healthy Children’s Coalition at safehealthychildren.org. Interested in becoming a lifeguard? Go to www.collierparks.com.