9-year-old boy dies days after being found at bottom of DeKalb apartment swimming pool, officials say
ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) - A 9-year-old boy who was found at the bottom of a DeKalb County apartment swimming pool has died, according to the medical examiner.
The boy, identified as Ganiyyu Abubakar, was pronounced dead at 12:24 p.m. Sunday, the DeKalb County Medical Examiner’s Office said Monday. He had been on life support since he was found at the bottom of the pool at the Legacy at Druid Hills Apartments on Druid Valley Road on Thursday afternoon.
The boy’s family had been asked to come to Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta to discuss end-of-life options. His mother told Atlanta News First on Friday that the family did not intend to take the child off life support while his heart was still beating.
According to witnesses, the boy and his two siblings were near the pool when family members say he fell in. Witnesses did not jump in to pull him out, because they could not swim. One resident then ran through the property until she found a woman walking her dog, who then rushed to the pool and pulled the child out.
How the boy ended up in the deep end of the 9-foot-deep pool is not known. His family said he was not supposed to be near the pool.
It’s unclear how long the boy was underwater, but witnesses say the whole situation lasted around 10 minutes, with another 10 minutes of CPR performed once the boy was pulled out.
DeKalb Fire Rescue initially said the child had died but later announced that a pulse had been detected and that he’d been taken to a nearby hospital.
On Friday, DeKalb County Health spoke to Atlanta News First about conditions at the pool, which had coincidentally been inspected earlier Thursday morning, hours before the incident.
The pool passed the inspection with a 94/100.
After the incident, residents complained of how deep the pool was and that no lifeguard was on duty, but DeKalb County Pool Programs Manager Leon Smith said the pool was up to code.