Published: May 23, 2008 11:35 pm         

Parkside student rescued from pool

A Parkside Elementary School fifth-grader is in critical condition after he was rescued from a pool Friday afternoon while on a school field trip.

Christjen Barnes, 10, was airlifted to Memorial Memorial Hospital of South Bend after he was pulled from a swimming pool at a home in the 64400 block of C.R. 21, according to Trevor Wendzonka, public information officer with the Elkhart County Sheriff’s Department.

According to Bruce Stahly, superintendent of Goshen Community Schools, the Parkside class had gone to a party at a home owned by a class member’s grandparents on C.R. 21, south of Goshen Middle School.

Wendzonka reported that about 1:30 p.m., Barnes told a couple of classmates he intended to retrieve an item lost at the bottom of the pool. It is not clear yet how long the boy was in the water, but fellow students became concerned when his movements stopped.

Barnes did not hit his head, Stahly said, but he had stopped breathing. The superintendent added that a lifeguard brought the boy out of the water and performed a heimlich maneuver, which expelled water, and he started breathing again. He said 911 had been called immediately, and paramedics placed Barnes on oxygen.

Emergency medical personnel took the boy from the home to First Baptist Church, 1011 S. Indiana Ave., where a helicopter transported him to South Bend. He arrived at the hospital approximately an hour after the incident began, Wendzonka said.

“The next 48 hours are critical,” Stahly said in regards to the student’s condition.

The superintendent noted he sent a note home with boy’s classmates encouraging parents to be in conversation with their children because they were upset by the incident.

Stahly also said officials later learned that the lifeguard’s certification had lapsed, but he noted that she reacted correctly to the incident.