Boy, 6, terribly injured after 30 children were allowed to jump into swimming pool at Nike sports camp while lifeguard was on lunch break, family says

A Washington DC boy was left on a ventilator after nearly drowning in a crowded pool while the lifeguard was on a lunch break, his devastated family claims. 

Adonis Jackson, 6, was attending a Nike Soccer Camp at the University of the District of Columbia Monday afternoon when he was discovered lying at the bottom of a swimming pool, according to a police report obtained by WTTG and WRC News. 

After nearly two minutes underwater, counselors finally spotted the boy and pulled him to the surface, where he was unresponsive but breathing. 

An investigation revealed camp leaders allowed nearly 30 children to jump into the pool at the end of the day as the on-duty lifeguard stepped away for a lunch break when the emergency unfolded, authorities said. 

Jackson was rushed to Children's National Hospital, where doctors sedated him and placed him on breathing tubes. As of Thursday morning, he was reportedly stable and receiving around-the-clock care.

'How could this happen? How do we get from a soccer camp to a drowning?' Dominique Calhoun, the family's attorney, told WRC.

'How could you allow 30 kids in a pool to go unwatched? How could you allow for a kid to be in the bottom of a pool for two minutes?' he added. 'I mean, for anybody watching, I want you to think about how long two minutes is to be underwater.' 

'I'm happy to say that Adonis is currently in stable condition. However, his road to recovery is long at this point.'

The near-fatal incident unfolded during what began as a typical day at Nike Summer Camp with FourSoccer, where children ages five to 16 take part in half-day and full-day soccer training.

Roughly three dozen campers jumped into the campus swimming pool to cool off after a day of practice. Minutes later, counselors discovered Jackson lying at the bottom, according to UDC's police report obtained by WRC.

Witnesses told authorities that a counselor jumped in to save the six-year-old boy but struggled to pull him out of the water.  

They then alerted the head coach, who managed to drag Jackson to safety. He began CPR until DC Fire and EMS crews arrived and took over. 

Chilling radio traffic captured by scanner website MGz revealed the frantic moments, with a dispatcher heard asking: 'I copy a 6-year-old male near drowning, cardiac arrest, CPR in progress. How long was he in the water and how long was CPR conducted?'

Jackson remained unresponsive but was breathing on his own when he was rushed to the hospital, where his mother was already waiting anxiously, according to the report.

She received a terrifying call from the camp at 1.30pm telling her, 'Hey, Adonis had guzzled some water' – a message she initially believed described a minor accident, not a life-threatening emergency, Calhoun told WTTG.

'She said, "Hey, I'll come and pick him up," and that's when the counselor said, "We are going to take him to the hospital,"' he said. 'It wasn't until the moment that she gets to the hospital that she learns how devastating this could’ve been.'

Calhoun told WJLA that when first responders arrived, there were fears Jackson 'wasn't going to make it.' He said oxygen deprivation can lead to 'a number of complications,' especially for a child. 

'To be underwater for that long, to have your brain deprived of oxygen, to have your body withheld from oxygen for that long can have lifelong, lasting impacts upon a person. Adonis is a six-year-old boy. Who knows what can happen to him?' he said.

'The worst nightmare of any parent, the worst nightmare of any loved one is when the physicians and the nurses came to the family and said, "We're so sorry for what's happened."'

Calhoun added that doctors are closely monitoring Jackson's vitals and have noticed some minor signs of activity while he remains sedated. 

He said his parents are desperate to know every detail of what happened, stating they are left with only one painful reality: 'They have a six-year-old boy currently in the hospital, sedated with tubes in his mouth, unable to be himself.'

Rosanne Wegman, whose 12-year-old daughter was among the campers, also publicly expressed her anger as one of several community members still shaken by the incident. 

'I was shocked,' the mother told WRC. 'It was horrifying to me as a parent because I had been sending her, you know, all week. If I had known that this situation happened, I would not have sent her past Monday.'

She shared an email sent by FourSoccer to parents Monday afternoon following the incident, which informed them that 'a camper had experienced a medical emergency in the water,' according to the outlet.

It read: 'Our staff responded immediately, removed him from the pool, and provided emergency care until medical professionals arrived. I accompanied them to the hospital, and I am relieved to share that they're expected to be okay…'

Wegman told the outlet: 'This is what actually gets me the most angry, is we care about the safety of your children at all times, and that's our utmost responsibility.'

'Well, if it's your utmost responsibility, why was there not a replacement lifeguard? Or why was there not a trained adult who, God forbid, the situation occurred and it did, could help this, you know, a child,' she added.

Wegman also accused the camp of a 'lack of transparency' in the aftermath of Jackson's near-drowning, stating: 'It doesn’t sit well. Not at all. Especially the fact that my daughter has been in the pool.'

'She wasn’t in the pool that day but has been in the pool before. And she’s told me that "I went on the deep end. It’s 13 feet." So thinking about that little boy, it just broke my heart, and it made me so uneasy as a parent.'

The university said it was completing its standard incident reporting process and reviewing the circumstances of the incident. It told NBC: 'We were deeply saddened to learn that a participant in the Nike Soccer Summer Camp, which utilizes the UDC athletic complex, was injured.'

'Emergency responders from UDC Police and DC FEMS were contacted, and the participant was transported to the hospital for treatment,' it added. 'Our thoughts are with him and his family, and we wish him a full and speedy recovery.'

Jackson's family has not yet filed a lawsuit but is seeking a full investigation, accountability and justice about the circumstances surrounding their son's near-drowning.