Nancy Baker Should Receive a Medal for Courage
The JereBeasley Report
January 2008 - Page 27

Nancy Baker, the mother of a happy and healthy child, never envisioned becoming a leading advocate for safer pools and spas.  But, the tragic accident that killed her 7-year-old daughter Graeme in 2002 prompted her to act. As Ms. Baker says, "It helps me make some sense of something that makes no sense at all. It was an utterly preventable and senseless death." This courageous lady's personal story, coupled with her tireless campaign to make sure such a tragedy doesn't happen to others, is one of the chief reasons why Congress should enact a federal pool and spa safety bill named for Graeme. The bill, which would direct the Consumer Product Safety Commission to set an anti-entrapment safety standard for pool and spa covers, was passed by unanimous vote in the House in October. It now awaits Senate action. The measure also encourages states, through financial incentives, to pass strong laws to require fences and anti-entrapment drain coverage devices to reduce childhood drowning. Although the measure has strong bipartisan support, its fate is uncertain. Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) has put a legislative hold on the measure, which is difficult to understand.

Graeme Baker, who had been swimming unassisted since she was three, drowned after becoming trapped underwater by hundreds of pounds of suction force from a hot-tub drain. The child had gone to the graduation party of a family friend with her mother and four sisters, including her twin, Jackie. Soon after they arrived, one of Ms. Baker's daughters ran toward her and screamed, "Mommy! Mommy! Graeme is in the hot tub." Ms. Baker jumped in and tried to save Graeme. As she later testified in Congress: "It took two adults to pull her off this drain, the force so great that the cover of the drain cracked in half removing her." The little girl died a horrible death and one that should never have happened.

Only days after Graeme's death, Mc. Baker's father-in-law, former Secretary of State James Baker, suggested that Nancy take action. He said at the time that the accident should never have happened to Graeme, nor should it happen to any child and he was right. Ms. Baker now reflects on what happened, saying:

Every day you get up looking for a child that's gone. You ask yourself, 'How in the world could I have prevented this from happening?' 'What could have been different?' I found out a lot could have been different. I was angry about it. I'm still angry about it.

After the tragedy, deep in grief, Nancy Baker soon started scanning the Internet to see if there were similar deaths. Slowly and sadly, she says, she began to "realize how many accidents had occurred - and how they were completely preventable." And that's when she began to make pool and hot tub entrapment a national issue. She personally visited House and Senate members, making her case, eventually joining up with the nonprofit safety group SafeKids to push for anti-drowning measures. As SafeKids notes on its Website, drowning is the second most common accidental injury-related killer of children ages one to 14. Each year, there are about 260 drowning deaths of children younger than five in swimming pools. The numbers of entrapment deaths are far smaller: 33 children, 14 and younger, died from pool and spa entrapments between 1985 and 2004 another 100 were injured during the same period.

Initially, Ms. Baker was told that the entrapment numbers were too low to merit Congressional or regulatory action. But this brave lady was undeterred, especially when she realized that there were relatively simple fixes available, including a safety vacuum release system that automatically shuts off the pump, releasing anyone who becomes entrapped. Fortunately Nancy Baker is translating her grief and anger into meaningful action. For that, SafeKids will name Nancy Baker as one of their safety crusaders. She will join the ranks of other parents who have lost children and are trying to make sure that their misfortune doesn't become that of others. Nancy Baker had this to say:

I dream of a day when children swimming in a pool without four-sided barrier fencing and with drain systems capable of pinning a child underwater would be just as unthinkable as children riding in a car without car seats.

I know that the powerful lobbying efforts against the bill are the reason there has not been final passage. All American citizens should join with Nancy Baker-SafeKids- and other safety groups and insist that the U.S. senate pass this needed legislation.