atlanta life tagged interest

ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) - A 9-year-old boy found at the bottom of a pool at the Legacy at Druid Hills Apartments on Druid Valley Road is still on life support, according to the boy’s mother.

The family has been asked to come to Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta to discuss end-of-life options. The boy’s mother, Felicia Adams, said the family does not intend to take the child off life support while his heart is still beating.

RELATED: Child rushed to hospital in DeKalb County pool incident has a pulse, fire officials now say

“They should not tamper the boy,” Adams said. “If God himself decides to take the heart, then so be it.”

The incident occurred just after noon on Thursday, July 11. The family says the boy was not supposed to be near the pool. How he wound up in the deep end of the nine-foot-deep pool is not known.

Residents noticed the boy in the water and became worried when he didn’t resurface; however, none of them jumped in, because they could not swim.

“Myself, I’m only 5′03″, said resident Diamond Hamilton. “I didn’t want to risk jumping in the water and not being able to save him.”

Hamilton ran for help, finding a woman who was walking her dog. That woman sprinted to the pool, jumped in, and pulled the boy out.

“That’s what’s driving me crazy, because when he wasn’t breathing, I felt so accountable for his life,” Hamilton said.

It is unclear how long the boy was underwater, but witnesses say the whole situation lasted around 10 minutes, with another 10 minutes of CPR performed once the boy was pulled out.

DeKalb Fire Rescue initially announced the child had died but later announced that a pulse had been detected and that he’d been taken to a nearby hospital.

On Friday, DeKalb County Health spoke to Atlanta News First about conditions at the pool, which had coincidentally been inspected earlier Thursday morning, hours before the incident.

The pool passed the inspection with a 94/100.

After the incident, residents complained of how deep the pool was and that no lifeguard was on duty, but DeKalb County Pool Programs Manager Leon Smith said the pool was up to code.

“Codewise, they’re not required to have a lifeguard,” Smith said. “So, anybody that has one, that’s just something that they want to do.”

Smith said he personally came out and reinspected the pool in the hours after the incident, finding that it once again was up to code.