A Fort Lauderdale mother is speaking out after her 8-year-old son drowned in a neighbor's swimming pool while walking home from school Monday.
On Thursday, Figenie Dugard said she was heartbroken and that she didn’t know how her son, Ryan Amichette, ended up in someone’s pool.
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"Mommy, I love you, mommy. I love you. Mommy, give me a hug, mommy," Dugard recalled, describing her son as affectionate and loving.
The past few days without him have been painful, she said.
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"I ain’t sleeping. I ain’t eat. I’m crying every day," Dugard said.
Ryan — a third grader at Northside Elementary School in Fort Lauderdale— was walking home from school when he wandered into a neighbor’s backyard on Northwest 4th Avenue near 12th Street.
He somehow entered the pool and drowned, police said. The owner of the home saw him in the water and called 911.
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Experts say accidental drownings happen more and more each year.
"Drowning is not like you see in the movies, there’s not always splashing and crying out for help," said Alex Hoehn-Saric of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. "It can be a silent killer where a child slips into the pool and gets trapped."
According to a report released Thursday by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, there’s been a 12% increase in deadly child drownings from 2020 to 2021 nationwide. There were 380 fatal child drownings in 2021 and 339 the year before.
The report also found that among children ages 5 to 14, 45% of drowning deaths were African American children.
"For historical reasons, we’ve seen African Americans, due to segregation, not being able to get access to swimming, so a lot of older African Americans don’t know how to swim and that translates to their children as well," Hoehn-Saric said.
Experts say this summer, parents should keep a few safety tips in mind like having a designated water watcher, knowing CPR, and putting up a barrier around their pool.
Ryan’s family has also started a GoFundMe.
