Girl, 4, pulled from Willow Lake pool Monday not breathing

Staff report

CHAMPION

A 4-year-old girl was recovered from the Willow Lake swimming pool on Mahoning Avenue not breathing as a lifeguard and a volunteer performed CPR on her.

Champion ambulance personnel took over her care Monday night and got her to ValleyCare Trumbull Memorial Hospital, where workers were able to restore a pulse, said James Hickey, Champion Township fire chief.

The child, believed to be from Masury, was found in the central part of the swimming pool, outside of the area designated for small children, and she was not wearing a flotation device, Hickey said.

The child still wasn’t breathing when firefighters arrived and hadn’t been breathing for 10 minutes or more, the chief said.

She still was not breathing on her own even after her pulse was restored, Hickey said.

The 911 call was made at 5:50 p.m., and she was transported to Trumbull Memorial at 6:05 p.m. She was flown by helicopter to Akron Children’s Hospital, but Hickey said he did not have an update on her condition.

Willow Lake has a campground and 650-by-170-foot pool, featured in Guinness World Records as the world’s largest chlorinated, freshwater, concrete-bottom swimming pool.

Another girl was involved in an accident at the pool four years ago.

A Youngstown family filed a wrongful-death lawsuit in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court in June over the death of Unique Moore, 5, who was found unresponsive in the pool June 5, 2011, and died the following day in the hospital.

The lawsuit alleged Willow Lake management failed to maintain the premises in a “reasonably safe condition” at the time Unique died.