By Joshua Melvin
San Mateo County Times
SAN MATEO COUNTY, Calif. — A 2-year-old child was rushed by ambulance to Stanford Hospital on Wednesday morning after falling into a saltwater slough behind a house, a fire official said.
The toddler, whose sex wasn’t immediately available, was pulled from Seal Slough near the 1500 block of Roberta Drive by the child’s great-grandmother, who then called 911 around 9:30 a.m., said San Mateo fire Battalion Chief Mike Borean.
The dispatcher who took the call could hear the child screaming in the background.
“That’s always good,” he added. “It was basically a close call.”
Fire crews went to the scene but did not have to resuscitate the child, who was then loaded into an ambulance and sent to the hospital as a precaution.
It was not immediately clear if the toddler was admitted to the hospital or released.
The child’s great-grandmother was baby-sitting Tuesday morning when the trouble started. The two were in the house alone when the great-grandmother turned away to do something. When she looked back, the child was gone. A search for the toddler led to the backyard, which drops off into the slough, Borean said. Emergency crews later saw that a piece of plywood that would normally block access to a set of steps leading to the water, had been pushed out of the way.
“Kids only need a second to go where they aren’t supposed to be,” Borean said.
It’s not clear how long the child, who got out of the house through an open patio door, was in the brackish water. However, Borean said even if a person ingests a relatively small amount of salt water, it can be dangerous. More extreme exposure can end with pneumonia or drowning.
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