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Icy water may have helped boy stay alive, doctor says
Tuesday, February 6, 2007 4:39 PM CST
LITTLE ROCK - The icy pond water that put a 5-year-old boy in a Little Rock hospital after he was submerged in it for more than one hour may also have helped him stay alive, a doctor who helped revive the boy says.
Barry "Tyler" Zielinski was playing on the pond Friday at his home near Van Buren, when he fell in. Family members tried to rescue the boy but the water was too cold. Sheriff's deputies arrived and used a flat-bottom boat and a dragline to locate Tyler and pull him out of the water.
Tyler was in critical condition Tuesday at Arkansas Children's Hospital in Little Rock, hospital spokeswoman Ginger Daril said.
Dr. Douglas Carlson, who tended to Tyler at Sparks Regional Medical Center's emergency room in Fort Smith, said Tyler could not have survived if the pond's water was not as cold as it was.
"If you cut off (a child's) oxygen supply, damage is going to occur fairly rapidly," Carlson said. "But if you cut off oxygen and submerge him in ice water, you're lowering the oxygen demand."
Crawford County Sheriff's Deputy Aaron Beshears, who helped save the boy, said ice on the pond was one-half to three-quarters of an inch thick when Tyler fell in. The boy's older sister, mother and grandfather, a volunteer fire fighter and a county dive team member all jumped into the frigid water to rescue him but couldn't.
Carlson, three other doctors and several nurses worked for more than two hours to warm Tyler. Nurses covered him in two warming blankets, and used heat packs, heating pads and IV fluids to raise his body temperature.
Though Carlson said Tyler will likely suffer from some brain damage if he survives, the pond's cold water protected him from suffering severe damage.
"The fact that he was able to live through all of this was because he was so cold," he said.
Saving Boy Took A Real Team Effort
Tuesday, February 6, 2007 9:10 AM CST
Five-year-old Barry Tyler Zielinski is still fighting for his life, but the rescue and emergency personnel who came to his aid are the ones responsible for giving him the chance to fight.
Last week, following snow and freezing rain and bitterly cold conditions, little Tyler and his sister ran outside to play but were warned first to stay away from the pond. Right away, that’s where the two apparently went.
Who knows what was going on in their minds. The pond, as they mostly knew it, had water in it, they may have thought. But this one was frozen, so maybe it was OK to play around the edges just a little.
Tyler, however, strayed too far out onto the ice and fell through. His 7-year-old sister, Brittany, tried to reach for him, but he went under and didn’t resurface. She ran to the house for help. Emergency personnel were called at 11:42 a.m.
In the meantime, Tyler’s mother, Audria Zielinski, jumped into the pond to try to find her son and bring him to shore but was unable. The same was true for Frank Zielinski, Tyler’s grandfather, who was still in the water desperately trying to find Tyler when emergency personnel arrived.
Locating the boy in the cold, muddy water wasn’t easy, even for those who are trained and dressed properly. Because the water was so cold, a diver was unable to stay in the water long. Other divers were on the way, but time was running short. As a last resort, rescuers in a flat-bottom boat began using drag tools to try to snag the boy. They knew the hooks on the tools could be dangerous, but that was a risk they had to take because they had to get him out right then.
And they succeeded. One of the hooks snagged his jacket. In just a little more than an hour after they were called, rescuers pulled Tyler from the pond. Before his little head was laid on the seat of the boat, cardio-pulmonary resuscitation was begun. He was taken ashore, rushed to an ambulance, raced across the road to a waiting helicopter and whisked to the emergency room at Sparks Regional Medical Center.
Getting him there was aided in one way or another by the combined efforts of the Crawford County Sheriff’s Office, Alma Police Department, Van Buren Police Department, Crawford County Dive Team, Van Buren Fire Department and local emergency service workers. Where the average person might have given up, these heroes knew that a child who has been submerged in cold water, even if he has been under for a long time, has a chance of survival — so they persevered.
Tyler is struggling still at this writing. The Sparks medical personnel — a team of four doctors and nine nurses — worked for what must have seemed an eternity to get his body temperature up to the point where they could use a defibrillator on him. After caring for him for 21/2 hours — warming him with blankets and heating pads and giving him heart compressions — they got his heart settled into a stable albeit weak rhythm.
“This is not something you run into all the time,” said Sterling Warren, a registered nurse, in a Times Record story. “When you get a heartbeat back, words can’t describe it. No one wanted to give up on this kid.”
Once Tyler’s heartbeat was restored, he was flown by Arkansas Children’s Hospital helicopter to its hospital in Little Rock, where he is in a coma and in critical condition. Based on the length of time he was under water, there is an assumption that he will have suffered brain damage but how much is not known. We know many prayers were offered up for him this weekend and that they continue to be offered up for him.
For now, we offer thanks to those emergency and rescue personnel, those guardian angels, who hurried to the scene, braved the harsh elements, put their own well being at risk and got the boy to safety as quickly as they could. Without them and their valiant efforts, Tyler’s fate would have already been sealed.
Tyler’s parents issued a statement Monday through Children’s Hospital, thanking area residents for their prayers. “Tyler is still in critical condition and today and tomorrow will be big days for him, so please continue to pray for him,” they ask.
For those who want to make a donation to the family to help with expenses, an account has been set up at Citizens Bank and Trust of Van Buren. The account is No. 507173503.
Kudos to the rescue team for giving the boy a fighting chance. We forget about all the people who prepare, train and drill to be able to help us at a moments notice.
NOTE: In the story below, the reported confuses "incubator" for "ventilator" and "intubation." One can read between the lines and understand what has happend so far.
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Family Sees Improvement In Boy Pulled From Pond
Wednesday, February 7, 2007 8:47 AM CST
By Hicham Raache
Although 5-year-old Barry Tyler Zielinski remains in a critical condition, his family gains hope through small indications of improvement.
“He’s on an incubator, but he’s starting to take more and more breaths on his own,” Frank Zielinski, the child’s grandfather, said.
The child, who is referred to as Tyler by his family and friends, fell through the ice of a pond near his Crawford County home in the 4500 block of Webster Branch Road on Friday morning and was submerged in its freezing waters for more than an hour before he was pulled out by rescue personnel.
Tyler Zielinski is in critical condition at Arkansas Children’s Hospital in Little Rock, but is showing gradual signs of improvement, Frank Zielinski said.
“He grabbed my son’s hand (and) he’s been coughing up stuff,” Frank Zielinski said. “They don’t want to give us false hope but we know he’s going to make it.”
Tyler was playing with his 7-year-old sister, Brittany, at 11:30 a.m. when he fell through a 1-inch thick sheet of ice and became trapped in the chilling waters.
Unable to pull her brother to safety, Brittany alerted her mother, Audria Zielinski.
Audria Zielinski ran to the pond in her nightgown and broke through the ice to rescue her son, but she could not reach him. Tyler’s mother suffered several abrasions to her legs during the rescue attempt.
When emergency personnel arrived at 11:47 a.m., they found Frank Zielinski inside the pond searching for his grandson. Exhausted and his legs freezing in the pond’s chilling waters, Frank Zielinski had to be pulled from the pond.
“My legs froze up and I had a hard time getting to shore, but I didn’t care if I drowned or not,” Frank Zielinski said. “I’d trade places with him in a minute.”
With Frank Zielinski pulled safely to shore, a rescue operation consisting of members of the Crawford County Sheriff’s Office, Crawford County Dive Team, Van Buren Police Department, Van Buren Fire Department and Alma Police Department began their search for Tyler.
A diver was deployed into the pond from a flat-bottom boat provided by the Crawford County Sheriff’s Office, said Chief Deputy Ron Brown of the Crawford County Sheriff’s Office.
“Because we have our boats centrally located, we didn’t have to fumble with it,” Brown said. “We had the boat up there quick.”
While waiting for additional divers to arrive, rescue workers moved drag tools through the pond hoping to locate and rescue Tyler.
Overwhelmed by the water’s low temperature and exposure to the crisp weather, the lone diver returned to shore, Brown said.
When emergency personnel noticed a shadow in the pond a volunteer from the Van Buren Fire Department plunged in after it, Brown said.
“We saw a shadow under the ice and he jumped in but it turned out to be a scarf,” Brown said.
Equipped with a drag tool, Brown, Van Buren police detective Brent Grill and Cpl. Aaron Beshears of the Sheriff’s Office boarded the flat-bottom boat and ventured out into the pond.
While searching the pond with the drag tool, Grill was able to catch hold of Tyler’s coat and pull him toward the boat.
“Aaron then grabbed hold of him and pulled him out of the water,” Brown said.
Brown said he immediately instructed Grill and Beshears to begin CPR on Zielinski as fellow emergency personnel pulled the boat to shore with a rope attached to it.
Within seconds, the boat was pulled to shore and placed inside a Care 1 EMS ambulance on his way to an Air Evac Life Team helicopter that had touched down in the yard of the Zielinski residence in anticipation of his arrival, Brown said.
“From the time we got him out of the water to the time we got him to the ambulance was less than 45 seconds,” Brown said.
After a seven minute flight, Zielinski was released into the care of Sparks Regional Medical Center’s emergency room staff, Leon Harwood, pilot for Air Evac, said.
Throughout the flight, emergency workers administered CPR to Tyler, who had neither a pulse nor heartbeat, and kept him warm with blankets, Pat Ming, a registered nurse from Sparks emergency room, said.
Warming devices, such as heating pads, were not used to increase Zielinski’s body temperature during the flight because they would have overwhelmed his body, Ming said.
“You can’t get him too warm because the body has to come back gradually rather than (quickly) overcompensate,” Ming said. “The fact that he is out of the cold and into a warmer atmosphere is going to get him warm.”
Zielinski was also incubated throughout the flight, in which a tube was placed in his mouth and slid down toward his lung area. The incubator served as a breathing apparatus that exhaled and inhaled air to and from his lungs, Ming said.
Inside the emergency room a crew of four doctors and approximately nine nurses tended to Zielinski, warming him with heating pads and warm blankets, and administering CPR to him for 21/2 hours until his body temperature reached 83 degrees, a temperature appropriate for defibrillation, Dr. Douglas Carlson said.
With a jolt sent from defibrillator pads pressed against the chest, a faint beat arose from Tyler’s heart.
His heart rate gradually improving, Tyler gained a strong pulse, but still suffered a lower than normal blood pressure, Carlson said.
After three hours of emergency-room care, Tyler was life-flighted to Arkansas Children’s Hospital where his parents are currently by his side.
Frank Zielinski and his wife, Judy, live next door to Barry and Audria Zielinski and care for two of Tyler’s sisters, Brittany and 6-week-old Dominique.
Brittany Zielinski is scared for her brother, Frank Zielinski said, but is being comforted by her grandmother.
“Judy has been the rock of this family,” Zielinski said. “Without her, the baby and me and Brittany would not have made it.”
Tyler’s oldest sister, 12-year-old Ariel, was also frightened upon hearing about her brother’s accident.
“She went into hysterics,” Frank Zielinski said.
Judy Zielinski said she has strong faith that her grandson, who she referred to as loving and sweet-natured, will recover.
“He’s wiggled his fingers and coughed on his own,” she said.
A fund for Tyler Zielinski has been set up at Citizens Bank & Trust Co. Donations can be made to account No. 507173503.
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