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So sad!
- Thread starter joanna71985
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Ember
Well-Known Member
Thank you so much for posting this! I haven't been able to find an update on him and I am so happy to see that he is making progress to recovery.
There's also a CaringBridge page for him
http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/chaselykken11
http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/chaselykken11
While it is good that he is still alive, I agree it is sad that he has brain injuries
For what it's worth, here's what I see as some of the issues:
1. One kids pool is actually four feet deep, which may be considered deeper than some people think a "kids pool" is expected to be. Perhaps the parents had no idea it was that deep. I assume this is the one where the kid was found.
2. Waiters and other people employed by Disney, I believe, try to keep an eye on the pools, but that's not their main job.
3. Kids could get into drowning trouble in less than a minute. Similarly, in the parks, little kids can walk away in a matter of seconds, and that very thing happened once with my 5 year old. It's both scary and avoidable, yet it happens even to very good parents.
4. If the parents just dumped the kid off and ran off to get food or drinks, they're truly to blame in some ways. If false assumptions and/or miscommunication were at the heart of the problem, it's just an accident, pure & simple.
5. None of us know if perhaps an older brother or sister was supposed to be watching, and got distracted or somehow lost track in some other way.
6. None of us know what really happened, but for the parents to not be on the scene until rescue workers arrived seems to make the whole thing indicative of negligent parents, assuming that part of the story is true.
Overall, it's terrible. Yes, it's not very classy to point fingers after such a tragedy, but at some point discussing the truth of the situation, blame and all, is inevitable and ultimately healthy.
Yes, life guards could be posted, but where would you put them, what would be the cost, and would it do any good? Truly, if a life guard was posted, even more lazy parents would just dump off the kids and force Disney employees to somehow control those few out of control brats who would ruin the pool area for the rest of us. In short, the lifeguard suddenly becomes a babysitter that many bad parents would be all too happy to dump their kids off on. In my opinion, that's not the solution. And that's certainly not where I want to be spending a few thousand dollars on vacation.
1. One kids pool is actually four feet deep, which may be considered deeper than some people think a "kids pool" is expected to be. Perhaps the parents had no idea it was that deep. I assume this is the one where the kid was found.
2. Waiters and other people employed by Disney, I believe, try to keep an eye on the pools, but that's not their main job.
3. Kids could get into drowning trouble in less than a minute. Similarly, in the parks, little kids can walk away in a matter of seconds, and that very thing happened once with my 5 year old. It's both scary and avoidable, yet it happens even to very good parents.
4. If the parents just dumped the kid off and ran off to get food or drinks, they're truly to blame in some ways. If false assumptions and/or miscommunication were at the heart of the problem, it's just an accident, pure & simple.
5. None of us know if perhaps an older brother or sister was supposed to be watching, and got distracted or somehow lost track in some other way.
6. None of us know what really happened, but for the parents to not be on the scene until rescue workers arrived seems to make the whole thing indicative of negligent parents, assuming that part of the story is true.
Overall, it's terrible. Yes, it's not very classy to point fingers after such a tragedy, but at some point discussing the truth of the situation, blame and all, is inevitable and ultimately healthy.
Yes, life guards could be posted, but where would you put them, what would be the cost, and would it do any good? Truly, if a life guard was posted, even more lazy parents would just dump off the kids and force Disney employees to somehow control those few out of control brats who would ruin the pool area for the rest of us. In short, the lifeguard suddenly becomes a babysitter that many bad parents would be all too happy to dump their kids off on. In my opinion, that's not the solution. And that's certainly not where I want to be spending a few thousand dollars on vacation.
Shame on you....shame on all of you who have passed judgment on people you don't know, and a situation you were nowhere near. I am a relative of this family and until now, I thought people like you were not worth the time and effort to give a response. This was a terrible, tragic ACCIDENT, that is all. Sorry to disappoint you and give you nothing to gossip about to others. Chase's parents are two of the most God-loving, diligent parents I know, who are deeply involved in every aspect of their children's' lives. Do you understand that if they were doing the things you accuse them of, such as drinking and not being watchful, that the authorities would have acted on this? If all of you are such avid cruisers as you claim, you would certainly know that when a ship leaves port, there are thousands of people on the upper decks, swimming, drinking, tanning, and taking in the whole experience. Chase was a sweet and active little four-year old boy who slipped away from his parents and got lost in the crowd. They didn't just "suddenly become aware" that he was missing when he had been pulled from the pool. They didn't allow him to go into a pool without them. They didn't leave the two older siblings to watch him. The truth is that they had been searching for him that ENTIRE time he was missing!!! Can you imagine the panic and fear any parent would feel during that time? Another item to point out, Chase was believed to have been underwater for 10-15 minutes and not a single person, staff or guest, noticed. NOT ONE!!! Does this not clearly point out the large number of people and commotion in that area at the time of the accident?? Chase fought for his life and survived. He now has a long battle ahead of him with a grim outlook. People like you are not helping the cause. I believe in the power of voicing opinions and the internet. You are entitled to your "opinion" but just as human beings, I beg you to be responsible about the things you say. I pray to God that they never see the horrible things posted on this thread. For those of you who supported them this last week, I thank you from the bottom of my heart.
sweetpee_1993
Well-Known Member
@Warrior, passing judgement has not been the sentiment of the majority. It's difficult for people with passionate feelings to make sense of something so tragic with so much left to speculation. That's not just here, its everywhere. It sounds like a tragic accident, nothing more. I've been following Chase's story and my heart truly goes out to him & his entire family. As a mother I can't even begin to imagine what kind of nightmare this must be. We'll keep hoping for the best for all...and for all to find peace with whatever God's will is for this family.
unkadug
Follower of "Saget"The Cult
That has been my number one concern and I feel ashamed of some of my fellow WDWMagic members.
ChuckElias
Well-Known Member
First, thanks for shedding even just a little light on the incident here with us.
Second, I've been following Chase's struggles on his Facebook page. I wish the family the best.
ExtinctJenn
Well-Known Member
Just read all the posts in this thread... started out feeling sick to my stomach immediately putting myself into the situation and not being able to come close to imagining how I would feel if this happened to me. I then read the posts where people assumed they knew what happened and why. This really is what's wrong with the world today in my opinion. We are so quick to judge people and situations based only on what we hear, read or are told. It's simlar to how quickly we assume someone who is overweight and in a wheelchair is there because they are lazy and eat nothing but twinkies (a whole other thread topic I know).
When you want to pass judgement or assume you understand a situation in almost any case my response is that you are entitled to your opinon whether I agree with it or not. In this case, my opinion is that no opinion is valid unless that opinion is that this must be a horrible thing for the parents to experience... period.
How dare anyone assume they know the situation well enough (even if you were standing right there as they pulled him from the water) to pass judgement on these people as parents. My son is 7-years old and in those 7 years there have been a few situations where, no matter how diligent I was being, he slipped away. It happens. Kids often see something and want to head off to it and we as parents can't be holding their hands 100% of the time... not just because it's usually impossible but because of the less literal sense of the fact that we have to give our kids some freedom where we can to be able to learn. I am one of those people who, before I had my son, thought those horrible chld "leashes" were the most horrible things I'd ever seen but let me tell you... once my son was walking I suddenly realized what a wonderful thing they were and how my opinon of parents who used them was 100% wrong. In other words, it's easy to judge when you aren't in a situation.
Thank goodness the boy is alive but it seems he's got a long road ahead. These poor parents went from having a healthy 4-year old boy full of life to a child who is now handicapped. Their lives are changed forever and I cannot even begin to imagine how hard their future will be. We should all be sitting back and thanking God (or whatever we believe in) that we are not them and not in their situation. We should be looking at our lives and giving thanks for what we have and holding any judgements we think we have the right to pass.
This truly is a parent's nightmare. The deeper of the two pools is usually closed off for the leaving port party, leaving the shallower pool as the one where he was probably found. How could no other bystander, adult, alert kid, or cast member not see this for so long? It's so easy for a child to wander away, and my wife and I panciked when my daughter walked off a couple years back at Star Tours. Thankfully there was no pool nearby. I can't imagine what they're going through.
Phonedave
Well-Known Member
Not really.
There are three pools. A Kids Pool, A Family Pool, and an Adult Pool.
The Kids pool is quite shallow. - most assuredly not 4'
The Family pool is the one that is deep and is open to kids, but it is not a kids pool. As such there are people of all ages in it. Including in my experience, reckless kids around the ages of 13 -15. It is, during sail away, noisy, lound, hazy, deep, and packed with people. It can easily imagine a child going under an not being noticed for a whle in that pool during that time.
-dave
True, but I think that family pool is covered up for the "Leaving port" party. The two pools aren't very apart, and kids of all ages can jump into either one of them.
I don't know the exact timing here, but it's still terrible. Imagine being on the ship just a few hours, your young child walked away, and you don't even know where to start looking. The kid could have gone overboard, gone off with some creepy stranger, could be anywhere. I can't imagine the parent's nightmare, and, yes, this is indeed the sort of thing that could happen to the best of parents, especially in a crowd in an unfamiliar environment.
I don't know the exact timing here, but it's still terrible. Imagine being on the ship just a few hours, your young child walked away, and you don't even know where to start looking. The kid could have gone overboard, gone off with some creepy stranger, could be anywhere. I can't imagine the parent's nightmare, and, yes, this is indeed the sort of thing that could happen to the best of parents, especially in a crowd in an unfamiliar environment.
This happened before the Sail Away party (both pools are open for a few hours)
3disneynuts
New Member
Lifeguards should be mandatory at every pool! This is heartbreaking and to those that say parents should be watching their kids .....this happens frequently right in front of untrained adults. There is specialty training on spotting a person/child in distress in water. It's not how movies portray it. The amount of money it cost to go on a Disney cruise is tremendous. THE LEAST they can do is have lifeguards. I have been on two and no parent should have to feel that their child is in danger on a ship that caters to small kids. This being said I hope chase makes a full recovery. The brain has a huge capacity to heal!
Warrior, first let me say that I am sorry this happened to Chase and to your family. I have been following Chase's progress on Facebook and hope he will continue to improve.
People on the internet feel free to say thing that they would never say to you face to face. And they want to believe the accident was preventable, that the parents must have done something wrong, because they want to believe such a thing could never happen to them.
My daughters are 22 and 20 and I can still remember things that happened in their toddler/preschool days that literally could have killed them. Things that happened right in front of me while I was watching them!
It's a scary world out there and people just want to feel protected. What happened to Chase is every parent's nightmare.
I am hoping that he will continue to improve.
People on the internet feel free to say thing that they would never say to you face to face. And they want to believe the accident was preventable, that the parents must have done something wrong, because they want to believe such a thing could never happen to them.
My daughters are 22 and 20 and I can still remember things that happened in their toddler/preschool days that literally could have killed them. Things that happened right in front of me while I was watching them!
It's a scary world out there and people just want to feel protected. What happened to Chase is every parent's nightmare.
I am hoping that he will continue to improve.
Part of me wants to jump in and say, "Yes, they should have lifeguards." But another part thinks again that lazy parents would see this as permission to dump their kids off and leave them there unsupervised with lifeguard babysitters.
I assume Disney is trying to find out exactly what happened, and how it can be prevented in the future. Does the solution have to be a bunch of lifeguards on every ship getting paid to stand around for an emergency that would almost never happen? Maybe. Should the other pool workers keep a better eye on what's going on between their other duties? Maybe. Should there be better supervision during port times? Probably.
I never worked on the sea, but everyone tells me that the turnaround in port is the busiest time for the crews. It's also the most chaotic and hectic time for the new passengers in this new habitat. I guess, therefore, that I'm not surprised that this happened during the crazy time at port, when many poolside cast members are probably off doing transition duties instead of their usual jobs. A better system should be found, and I assume some changes will be made.
I assume Disney is trying to find out exactly what happened, and how it can be prevented in the future. Does the solution have to be a bunch of lifeguards on every ship getting paid to stand around for an emergency that would almost never happen? Maybe. Should the other pool workers keep a better eye on what's going on between their other duties? Maybe. Should there be better supervision during port times? Probably.
I never worked on the sea, but everyone tells me that the turnaround in port is the busiest time for the crews. It's also the most chaotic and hectic time for the new passengers in this new habitat. I guess, therefore, that I'm not surprised that this happened during the crazy time at port, when many poolside cast members are probably off doing transition duties instead of their usual jobs. A better system should be found, and I assume some changes will be made.
My younger daughter, now a junior in college, almost gave me a heart attack when she was 4 years old. We were at Busch Gardens, my daughters, my three sisters and I. We were walking over a footbridge from one part of the park to the other. She'd been holding hands with my sister, but somehow slipped away, ran ahead and started to climb the railings to see what was under the bridge. Fortunately my sister moves real fast.
It can happen in a minute, with a parent standing right there.
People who think otherwise are not living in the real world.
It can happen in a minute, with a parent standing right there.
People who think otherwise are not living in the real world.
Ember
Well-Known Member
I really don't understand why they don't wait until the ship is at sea to open the pools? Every time I have been on a cruise it has been a total and utter madhouse on the pool deck until the rooms are opened and the ship has left the port. This accident could have happened to anyone with kids of any age. I am so very glad to see he survived and I continue to hold out hope for his recovery.
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