Boy who nearly drowned in Kinneret passes away

Wave of drownings continues Sunday • 10-year-old dies near Zichron; 4-year-old recovers.

By YAAKOV LAPPIN, JUDY SIEGEL-ITZKOVICH
DAVID MEITAV with father 370 (photo credit: Western Galilee Government Hospital)
DAVID MEITAV with father 370
(photo credit: Western Galilee Government Hospital)
A four-year-old boy who lost consciousness in the waters of Lake Kinneret (the Sea of Galilee) on Saturday died at Emek Medical Center in Afula on Sunday.
Police have opened an investigation into suspicions of negligence on the part of his parents and the lifeguard on duty at the beach.
The boy arrived with his family from Givatayim at the Kinneret beach on Saturday, and wandered into the lake on his own.
According to an initial police investigation, the parents noticed the boy was gone several minutes after he vanished, and alerted the lifeguard.
The guard located the boy floating in the water and administered CPR until paramedics arrived.
Paramedics rushed the youngster to the children’s intensive care unit at Poriya Hospital near Tiberias, and managed to revive his pulse en route. He was later taken to Emek Medical Center.
Meanwhile, two boys aged 10 entered the Mediterrenean Sea at Habonim Beach, near Zichron Ya’acov, and became stranded in the waters. Emergency services retrieved the boys, and tried to revive one who showed no signs of life. The attempts were unsuccessul and paramedics declared the boy dead. His friend is in fair condition.
Meanwhile, a four-year-old boy from Or Akiva, hospitalized in critical condition after a near-fatal drowning in the pool of a guest house in the Western Galilee, has been saved.
David Meitav was rushed on Wednesday to Nahariya’s Western Galilee Government Hospital, where he was attached to a respirator and deeply sedated. The hospital reported on Sunday that his condition had improved greatly and that he had been able to get out of bed. Medical tests showed that he was gradually returning to normal. Hadas said that as David regained consciousness on the 15th of Av, the family decided to make that his “new birthday” to celebrate every year.
His parents, Nadav and Hadas, haven’t left his beside since the accident.
Hospital director-general Dr. Masad Barhoom, who visited the family several times during the past few days, said there has been an increase of drownings and near-drownings and other preventable accidents in his area since the school vacation began.