Toddler survives

— Emergency personnel on the Pea Ridge Fire/Ambulance Department saved the life of a toddler Saturday night.

At 5:32 p.m. Saturday, Benton County Central Communications received a radio call from Pea Ridge Fire Chief Frank Rizzio requesting an ambulance. He asked for “priority traffic... Lee Town Drive ... have 1-year-old looks like probable drowning in a swimming pool. Get Bentonville ALS and everyone else you can get over here ... my house.”

The Central Communications dispatcher confirmed the address and dispatched Pea Ridge Fire/Ambulance within seconds. Emergency personnel were on the scene within 41 seconds of the call coming into CENCOM. The house is a half mile from the station which is now staffed for two shifts.

“Staffing the Fire Department certainly made a huge difference in the response time,” Mayor Jackie Crabtreesaid. Before hiring people to work the shifts, volunteers had to travel to the station from wherever they were, get their equipment and the ambulance and then respond to the scene.

Within six minutes, Pea Ridge Ambulance was with a Bentonville advanced life support ambulance on Arkansas Highway 72. The patient was transferred to the Bentonville ambulance, which then took the patient to a hospital. He was transferred to Arkansas Children’s Hospital in Little Rock and is reportedly doing well.

Further details of the incident are unknown because the fire chief declined to discuss the incident.

“Definitely I think it’s a testimony to how dedicated our folks are to keep up with their training and hard work that goes into that field,” Crabtree said of the Pea Ridge Fire/Ambulance personnel. “I can’t describe that. It’s something those folks take real seriously.

They’re on the top of their game every time they go out.”

In less than three years, Pea Ridge emergency personnel have been called to two near-drowning incidents of toddlers.

On Sept. 18, 2009, then 18-month-old Colton Hawkins, the grandson of Jack and Dorothy Maddox, was found in his grandparents’ pool at their residence on Asboth Street. He was revived on the sceneby Pea Ridge medical personnel and transferred to Bentonville ALS. Although he did spend a night in the hospital, he recovered and is today, a healthy, rambunctious boy, his grandfather said.

“There was a very professional helpful response of the local emergency people,” Maddox said several months after the incident, expressing gratitude for saving his grandson’s life.

News, Pages 1 on 06/20/2012