There's new information on the near drowning of a girl in a Grand Island hotel pool over the weekend.
Monday, witnesses told 10/11 the child's parents were not in the Howard Johnson pool area at the time of the accident.
Tuesday, those parents reached out to us saying they were there. Investigators working the case would not comment. The girl is still in fair condition at the Omaha Children's Hospital.
Howard Johnson Riverside Inn employees say the girl and her family were visiting Grand Island from Dunning to attend a 60th birthday party Saturday night, but that joyous occasion took a scary turn Sunday morning.
Paramedics from the Grand Island Fire Department responded to the Howard Johnson Riverside Inn just after 10 a.m.
"They were called to a possible drowning of a young female at Howard Johnson," GIFD EMS Division Chief Russ Blackburn says. "They arrived to find the patient had been pulled out of the pool."
A dentist and nurse from Beatrice, who were in town for a youth basketball tournament, began performing CPR right away.
"The people were checking for a pulse, tipped her to the side and got the water out, if there was any, and proceeded to immediately start CPR," Howard Johnson Sales and Catering Director Pam Knuth says.
Paramedics say that head start made a huge difference.
"A bystander who can step in and do it within the first 30 seconds, that's immensely helpful," Blackburn says. "It'll do a lot more good than even before we can get there in the four minute time frame. They probably saved her life, otherwise she may not have made it."
Hotel employees say that's why they require adult supervision in the pool at all times.
"You just never know what can happen, whether the child has a medical condition or not, they need to be supervised," Knuth says.
Blackburn says that's especially important at a hotel pool where there isn't a lifeguard.
"It's always very important to be alert and vigilant when there's no lifeguard on duty to watch kids around water because it doesn't take much for them to drown," Blackburn says.
Paramedics and hotel employees couldn't comment on what caused the girl to begin drowning.
