By Seth Burkett
The Decatur Daily
SOMERVILLE, Ala. — A family member said Tuesday that one of two young boys pulled from a swimming pool unresponsive a day earlier was declared brain dead.
Robert Widner, 3, and his cousin, Carter Peterson, 1, were both still listed in critical condition in Huntsville Hospital’s pediatric intensive care unit late Tuesday.
Carter’s grandmother, Rochelle Sharber, said family members made plans to donate Robert’s organs after being told he was brain dead.
Carter, who turns 2 on April 5, showed some signs of improvement, Sharber said.
“He heard my voice, he opened his eyes, and he is moving around. But he’s still critical,” Sharber said.
Carter’s mother Megan Ross is Sharber’s daughter, and Robert’s guardian Brenda Garcia is Sharber’s mother.
Relatives who were babysitting found the children in an in-ground swimming pool in an enclosure behind the family home at 18 Callie Private Drive about 5 p.m. Monday, authorities said.
Sharber said the babysitters, aunts Jessica and Sabrina Ross, pulled the children from the pool. A few neighbors said they heard a scream when the children were discovered.
Carter’s 3-year-old brother, Julian Peterson, also was in the pool. Sharber said Julian was shaken by the incident but was OK. She had not pressed him for details about how the children got out of the house and into the pool, she said.
“He’s been at the hospital all day with us, but he doesn’t fully comprehend. He just turned 3 on Sunday,” she said.
A neighbor, Becky Dudley, said Julian told her he fell in but made it to the steps of the pool.
Dudley said she got a call from a relative, a volunteer firefighter, who overheard Somerville firefighters being dispatched to her neighbor’s home.
“I jumped in my truck and took off up there,” Dudley said.
She said sheriff’s deputies arrived at the same time she did.
“Carter was lying right there at the steps and Robbie was more at the back. I went to Carter and started doing CPR on him. The cops went to Robbie,” Dudley said. “When we put Carter in the ambulance, he didn’t have any kind of spontaneous respirations or anything like that.”
Several deputies and firefighters were working on Robert, she said.
Somerville Area Volunteer Emergency Services Chief John Stinson said the younger child was sent to Decatur Morgan Hospital by ambulance and the older child was taken by an Air Evac helicopter. Both were transferred to Huntsville Hospital.
“I was an EMT for 20 years,” Dudley said. “Now I know what I don’t miss about it. ... It’s hard when you’re dealing with little kids like that. It was hard when I worked on an ambulance, but it’s a lot harder when you know the kids.”
Neighbor Denise Robinson said she heard a “hair-raising” scream when the aunts found the children in the pool. She called out to ask if everything was OK, but got no response, she said.
Robinson said she assumed the sound had just been made by someone who had gone for a swim.
“All the kids scream and holler jumping in the pools,” she said.
When she saw Dudley and the deputies arriving, she realized something was wrong and went next door.
“They were frantic — the girls,” she said. “From what I understand, they had them blocked off (from going outside). How they got around it, they just don’t understand.”
Robinson described Robert and Carter as “adorable.”
“My grandkids and them play together,” she said.
At least one neighbor said she took a lesson from the tragedy.
“This morning I ordered a pool alarm for my swimming pool — if something 15 pounds or heavier hits the water and makes a splash, it goes off,” Dudley said.