A 1-year-old girl was fighting for her life Sunday night after she was found unresponsive in a bathtub at a home in the 5200 block of Sherman Street in Houston. Paramedics performed CPR and managed to resuscitate the child before rushing her to a hospital that specializes in treating kids, and she remained in critical condition as of Monday.
Houston police officers and Houston Fire Department crews responded to a 911 call reporting a child in distress shortly after 8 p.m. Sunday, according to Houston Stringer. First responders found the 1-year-old in the bathtub, and medics worked to revive her before transporting her to an area pediatric hospital, per KPRC Click2Houston.
Police say the child's mother was home at the time with the 1-year-old and an 8-year-old child, but it was not immediately clear whether the mother was in the bathroom when the drowning happened. Detectives were investigating the incident, which police characterized as an apparent tragic accident still in its early stages, the station's report notes.
Investigation Still Taking Shape
Houston Stringer reported that detectives from the police department's Special Victims Unit were handling the case, which authorities said was being investigated as an accident. No further details on how the child came to be submerged, or who first discovered her in the tub, have been released, and the same outlet's account says the investigation remained in its early stages as of Monday.
Houston has seen bathtub drownings turn fatal before. In a previous case in southwest Houston, an infant died after being left alone in a bathtub with running water while a 14-year-old responsible for the child's bath left the bathroom to use a computer, according to ABC13. That infant was taken to Texas Children's Hospital, where they were pronounced dead, and HPD homicide detectives investigated. It is not established whether Sunday's incident shares any similarities with that case beyond the setting.
Why Bathtubs Remain So Dangerous for Infants
Drowning is the second-leading cause of unintentional injury-related death for children ages 1 to 14, according to Texas Children's Hospital, which also warns that submersion injury — complications from inhaling water into the lungs — can produce symptoms that develop up to 24 hours after a child leaves the water. The hospital advises that trouble breathing after any submersion event is a medical emergency requiring an immediate call to 911.
Texas child-safety guidance from the state's Prevention and Early Intervention program urges parents to never leave a child unsupervised around water, inside or outside the home, noting it takes only a few minutes for a child to drown. The 1-year-old girl on Sherman Street remained in critical condition at the time of the police briefing, and no additional updates on her condition had been released.
