State looking at 4-year-old's drowning in St. Charles
State health officials have launched an investigation into the weekend drowning of a 4-year-old boy at a St. Charles country club.
Paulino F. Delle Grazie of St. Charles drowned Saturday afternoon in a swimming pool at the Royal Fox Country Club. The investigation started this morning, said Melaney Arnold, state health department spokeswoman, declining to comment on the investigation itself.
In general though, investigators inspect the facility and its conditions, review the report from the facility about the drowning, see whether equipment was operating properly and look into whether lifeguards were on duty.
"If we find that there is a violation, meaning something in the swimming code was not followed, there is the possibility of sanctions," Arnold said.
Penalties could range from a fine to outright revocation of its license, she said.
The investigation was expected to last all of Monday and the results should be released next week, Arnold said. She was not aware of past complaints against the club.
Paramedics from the St. Charles Fire Department were called shortly after 3 p.m. Paulino was taken to Cadence Delnor Hospital in Geneva and pronounced dead at 4:11 p.m. in the hospital's emergency room, according to a news release from Kane County Coroner Rob Russell.
The coroner's office conducted an autopsy Monday and confirmed the cause of death as drowning.
The coroner continues to investigate the child's death and has submitted toxicology samples to a forensic laboratory, the release said.
The fire department had no further comment, and the St. Charles Police Department said it was making no statement beyond an initial news release. The club also had no comment.
Paulino was one of four area children who drowned over the weekend in three incidents.
In Hobart Indiana Saturday night 8- and 9-year-old brothers, Terrion and Donel Smith, drowned in a pit full of water just blocks from their northwest Indiana home.
The pit, in a residential neighborhood, is about 20 feet deep, with no fence around it. Sunday night, Hobart's mayor promised to look into the matter.
A 3-year-old, Liam Vaughn of Rockford, was at a relative's home in far southwest Morris for a family gathering Sunday afternoon and had been playing in a large aboveground pool.
Liam had been wearing inflatable "floaties" on each arm, but he got out of the pool to eat something and took them off, Grundy County Coroner John Callaghan, but he did not put them back on when he returned to the water. The father jumped in to get his son and started CPR. Emergency responders took the boy to Morris Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.