WASHINGTON — A Virginia family is saying goodbye to its little boy, who recently drowned at a community pool in Aquia Harbour. On Sunday evening, four-year-old Rico Rivera-Brayshaw was pulled from a pool in a gated community in North Stafford around 7:30 p.m.
Rico was found in about three feet of water. The boy was unresponsive, says Bill Kennedy, spokesman for the Stafford Sheriff’s Office says.
CPR was administered to the child by the lifeguards and then continued by the fire and rescue team. Kennedy says the boy was taken to an area hospital before being transferred to Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center in Richmond. There he received extensive emergency medical treatment, but on Tuesday, he was declared dead.
“Unfortunately we found out on Tuesday that the child did not make it. He passed away as a result of the drowning incident on Sunday,” Kennedy says. “Our hearts go out to this family and the tragedy that occurred. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the family, the entire time. And we are just saddened by the entire event.”
A message was posted on the Aquia Harbour Property Owner’s Association’s Facebook page on Thursday, July 10.
“Our hearts go out to his mother, his brother (age 5) and his family. There are a lot of people suffering with the family; the adults and children at the pool that day, the lifeguards who performed CPR and kept him alive long enough to give him a fighting chance and of course any of you with young children and grandchildren.
We are meeting with the family this afternoon and will keep you posted on arrangements and needs.”
A Gofund me campaign has been started to help the family with funeral arrangements.
A viewing for Rivera-Brayshaw was held Saturday in Richmond.
There were two other recent, separate drowning incidents involving a seven-year- old girl and a recent high school graduate.
On Monday, July 7, a recent Forest Park High School graduate from Prince William County drowned in the early evening hours at a quarry in Fredericksburg, Va.
On Friday, July 4, a seven-year old girl drowned at a lake in Spotsylvania as her family was preparing to watch fireworks.
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