As the father of a 5 year old daughter, my heart goes out to Abigail Taylor’s family - your precious child has been taken from you. And though my heart is filled with sadness for you, please take some comfort in knowing that she lives in Heaven with the Father and the Lord Jesus. A very real place where you are able to see her again (John 14:6).

This is a tragic shame and should not have happened. This happened to a little girl here in North Carolina years ago. John Edwards represented the little girl’s family and won the suit against the swimming pool company. She lived but will be on feeding tubes for the rest of her life. During the trial, it was discovered that the company knew about numerous victims of this kind of injury. The part which can prevent this injury only cost pennies to make but the company failed to install the part. It saddens me to see that this has once again happened to an innocent child because of corporate greed and neglect. Those calling for tort reform want to limit punitive damages to $250,000. If this happened to my child and I knew it could have been prevented, $250,000 in punitive damages is just not enough compensation.

My heart goes out to this family. Be blessed in the knowledge that the Lord is with them and Abigail is with the Lord.

As the mother of a 2 year old and a 5 year old, I just cannot imagine what the Taylor family is going through and has been through. My heart goes out to you. I pray that the Lord will give you peace and comfort during this terribly tragic time. God bless you, too, for fighting to change the laws so that this type of horrible accident does not happen again.

Why does it always take a catastrophe to bring about a law or a change in legislation that is so obvious? If these drains don’t meet safety “entrapment standards”, then why wasn’t this addressed earlier? I have now read dozens of articles through the years about this type of injury. It’s always some small child, and most of these young victims are disabled for life-if they survive. Apparently the $250,000 cap is not a strong enough deterrent for these large and profitable companies. Disgusting.

God Bless you, Abigail and may He keep you among his angels. May He help your family deal with their loss and shower them with the grace they will need to endure your loss.

My sincere sympathy to the Taylor family! The world shares your sorrow! i pray that God will bring you comfort and peace! May you also find comfort in warm memories and in the knowledge that Abigail’s story and subsequent legislation will surely save the lives of other children! God Bless You! (from a mom who is grieving the death of her son)

My sincere sympathy to the Taylor family! The world shares your sorrow! i pray that God will bring you comfort and peace! May you also find comfort in warm memories and in the knowledge that Abigail’s story and subsequent legislation will surely save the lives of other children! God Bless You! (from a mom who is grieving the death of her son)

This story is heartbreaking and the grief that this family will have to deal with is unimaginable. But, the passage of this new preventative law will help in diminishing their loss. My heart goes out to them because I’ve been dealing with the loss of my daughter for fifteen years and it is never over; and, time does not help your anger and bereavement. Just pray frequently, cry and talk about your loss.

I live in Minnesota, not far from where this tragedy began. This story struck alot of people in Minnesota. As a new parent, it breaks my heart even more now. This is suck a sad end to something that was COMPLETELY AVOIDABLE. My heart goes out to her family and all the people who cared for her after the incident. My prayers are with them during this difficult time.

The worst tragedy is that this is a needless injury and why code requires vortex breakers and multiple drains on pools (at least here in GA)

Speechless, disgusted, sad, and pissed off this happened.

And now, Mr. and Mrs. Taylor, how large would you like that check to be?

This story is tragic, but what’s inexcusable is the fact that there’s a weight-loss ad inserted squarely in the middle of the copy. The producers who put this together should gather a brain cell or two (if they have one to share) and think about the ramifications of this type of thoughtlessness and insensitivity.

I had sympathy for the family until I read the last sentence that they had filed law suits against everyone in the world. Sometimes freak and devistating things happen. It doesn’t mean you are entitled to financial compensation. Everything in life has a certain risk, even swimming pools. Stop suing eveyone or else the world is going to be a very boring place.

My heart and prayers are with the Taylors family at this difficult time for the loss of their beloved Abigail.

What a tragedy. May God Bless the Taylor Family.

So sad….so sad!!! Now the “what if’s, the “if only’s”, “I should have’s” will start. As a parent who lost a 16 year old son 26 years ago….the pain will always be there. Time only allows the pain to be bearable. However when I received that dreaded phone call from the police and I can remember like it was today that God had his arms around me saying “trust me” and “be patient”. So I must say to the Taylor family, feel God’s love as he is surely with you now.

Eddie, you are a complete horse’s behind. It’s pretty obvious that the point behind the lawsuit is to make sure the pool companies put in safeguards that prevent this kind of thing from happening again. Pay attention dude.

My heart goes out to Taylor family. I will be praying for you. No amount of money will ever compensate for your loss or bring comfort to your soul. But know that saving the life of another young child will bring meaning and some sense of purpose to young Abigail’s life and premature death. I pray you stay in the fight to do that. I am sad that our devaluing of children and our pursuit of wealth in our society lies at the heart of this tragedy and so many other tragedies in our society. I pray that we will return as a society–government, corporations, schools, hospitals, on our highways and byways, etc. and all of us as individuals– to valuing every life as the creation of God he or she is. May we stop the violence against each other from conception through death.

What a sad, sad story. I’ve followed it since it broke out numerous months ago. How shocking that a pool pump could be that powerful and cause that kind of damage.

My heart goes out to the family. We hope that good can come from her short life by saving other children from the same possible ordeal. If that can happen, she’ll leave a legacy surpassing most.

Bryan
Phoenix, AZ

Bless her heart. She was only playing like any normal child would.
I feel so badly for her family. I’m sure they are going to miss her
very much.

One of the most precious joys in life is children. Every child should be protected by such incidents with regulations such as pools, toys, etc, especially when it comes to the liability of others. This incident is surely one that was not intentional, however, when it comes to a child, someone needs to set the pace with how important it is to protect children. Should there be a lawsuit? I am sure the chances of receiving compensation are high, but this can never bring the child back. Maybe the we, as adults, should set a model of being thankful for the days we do have with out loved ones, including our children. Life can be taken away within a blink of an eye, be thankful for the good times, be thankful for the things we learn from a precious child, that is to truly know what love is. This family will be in my thoughts and there will be a day where her family will see her once again.

Dear perants,
I am so sorry for your lose and would like to do try and anything to help you through this trying hard time. If there is a bank receiving money, please e-mail me so I can do some small thing to help you. Sinerly your,
Harold Ross, father of 5. Long Lane, MO.

It’s extremely sad that this littile girl died doing something so ordinary as swimming in a pool and must be very heartbreaking for the parents. But I must agree that I was impressed with the parents crusade to pass laws to prevent this from happening until I saw that they are suing everyone possibly involved, to me that’s sick and horrible. Who really thinks that that the people that own the golf club would deliberatly have something that potentially dangerous exposed to kids. Where is the forgiveness in todays’ society? It’s too bad that such a tragedy that had the positive outcome of reform, then turned into a disgrace of that family when they turned around and sued everyone. I would hope they donate every dime of that to some sort of charity in their daughters honor.

Indeed this is a terrible tragedy that has occurred. The federal law that was passed was already in the works for some time and not necessarily passed because of this one incident. Most states already have codes in place to prevent this (here in Texas since 2001). That is where the real pressure needs to be put on legislators (at the state level) so that all states will implement the code changes needed. They are the ones who will be doing the inspections, not the federal government.

Everyone is saddened by what has happened , however , a Congressional investigation isn’t warrented .
Before you know it Congress will be spending $$$ , trying to determine why tooth picks are used to clean ear canels , when the label clearly states “DO NOT INSERT INTO EAR”.

It is hard for me to comprehend the horror of what happened to this little girl and her family. I only hope that in time, the parents can somehow get beyond this tragedy to find meaning in their lives. as a parent, my heart goes out to them and I am filled with rage that a pool could be built with such a fundamental design flaw. Money is meaningless here. If someone knew this risk was present I hope a prosecutor is looking hard to see whether criminal charges shoudl be brought.

This is very sad and concerning to me. I am a mother to three children. My kids love to go swimming during the summer and this is going to stay on my mind.

I truly believe the parents brought about the lawsuit to have these companies accounted for. I seen the father on tv speaking in front of legislation not too long ago and I believe monetary compensation is the last thing on this father’s mind.

Even if the family does receive monetary compensation it’s going to go towards paying the medical bills that I’m sure have accrued since June of last year.

What a horrible tragedy. God bless Abigail Taylor and may she rest in peace. My prayers go out to her family for their loss. Just a sad, sad day.

What a truly sad ending for this family. As a swimmer, I’m always encouraging parents to take their children to the swimming pool. My heart just breaks for this family. I pray that God gives them strength and that they find some solace in happy memories with their child.

I am extremely saddened by this sensless tradgedy. I work in the pool industry and know that this is easily avoidable. The problem I see is the suing of the company who manufactures the main drain and pump, They have strict guidelines on how to use their equipment and for this to happen the person maintaining this pool was negligent in their duties. He or she had the obligation to make sure that all saftey features were installed and in good working order. To let a pool be open missing parts or in any way comprimised is totally unacceptable. My heart goes out to the Taylor family for their great loss.

When I first heard the story I was very glad that she survvied. I was deeply saddened to hear that she passed my heart goes out to the family and Ihope they realise that she will be missed by all who knew her and by all that didnt God bless her in your care.

It’s a shame that people does not do something at the beginning of installing or building something before something like this happens to innocent children or people.

I wonder if the country club was saving money by not having a licenesed professional care for the pool?

I don’t understand why the media has to distort the facts to make it more dramatic.
She was not in a swimming pool she went, into a wading pool at a golf course. As a golfer these wading pools are very dangerous, all kinds of stuff get thrown inside those wading ponds. In some cases the suction in the drains are to collect golf balls that get hit in the water.

I am a father and my heart goes out to the parents in this tragety. Sorry for your loss. Such a precious little Girl.God bless your family.

I am so sorry to see your precious daughter, Abigail, leave all of us. She has such a wonderful smile and is smiling on us from heaven. Abigail will be in my prayers at Easter Vigil Mass. I will ask the blessed virgin Mother Mary to watch over Abigail until we can all meet and see her again in Heaven. The young are made into angels upon entering Heaven and Abigail is no exception.

If this was a “drain” cover and there was suction, it would seem that the pool was being drained. Why was anyone in the pool in the first place? Why wasn’t the pool closed? The pool manager should be fired and the club held responsible if this was the case.

Thanks, Randy.

I am so sorry for your loss. I have a 4 and 7 year old and my heart breaks for you. I pray you the entire family on your loss. May God bless each of you.

Parents of small children, please read:

The Eaton Corporation/ Cutler-Hammer electrical division, has developed a Pool Control Panel that shuts-off the pool pump, by detecting a change of pressure in the system.

Anyone interested in learning more about this device can contact me at http://www.ibextechcorp.com or visit the Eaton website.

For those of you living in Dade County, Florida, we offering free installation of this device for parents with small children, and we encourage others to do the same in memory of Abigail.

My heart sunk when I read the heading about this little girl dying. I stopped right there and prayed for her family and just thinking of everything they have gone through since last June. How sweet and precious that picture is of this little girl. My prayers go out to her family. May God be with all of them at the difficult time.

Thank you, Marissa, for commenting on Eddie’s comments. This tragedy was caused by corporate greed and the inadequate pool management of the golf club. The only thing these parents can do to get the attention of these greedy companies is to hit them in only place they’ll feel it…in the money belt. Sad as it is, that’s the way corporate America works. Get a clue, Eddie! My heart and prayers go out to Abigail’s family and hopefully they’ll at least have the comfort in knowing that Abigail’s story has touched millions and she will be remembered as a brave hero…

I hope the media outlets will provide, when and if available, a link to the family’s wesite, or anything like that. I would like to send the family a big hug, prayer, and thoughts. My heart aches with your loss.

I am so very sorry that this horrible incident happened to this little girl. This unfortunately has been happening for a very long time the first I learned of childern being eviserated on pool suction outlets was back in the mid 1980’s. It is just a shame that it took so many kids and adults alike for people to demand action. One of the reasons for the widespread misunderstnading is of what a pool drain is. It is not a drain! it is a suction outlet on the bottom of the pool. It is on the bottom of the pool at the deepest point to allow for all the water to be removed from the pool via backwashing the filter. It is not really a drain. In normal operation it is meant to aide in sending used water and particulate matter to the filter for cleaning and removal. It is an attaractive toy for kids. Kids like to grab, pull, sit and touch the drain. All this can lead to entrapment via clothes , hair jewelery or by body part such as arms, legs, etc. The new law is meant to prevent this type of accident and I applaude all who have been working to see the law pass. The new law will insure that all bottom suction outlets are designed and installed so no person laying or sitting on them can form a compelte seal ,which is what happened to this sweet little girl. Mom’s dad’s listen do no let your kids play on or near any pool suction outlet. Outlets can be found on the bottom the side walls of pools in the form of drain covers, grates Skinner equalizer lines should not be suction hazards but they should not play inside the skimmer cylinders either where there can be tremendous suction as well. All maindrains should be covered with the proper cover bolted down with srcews and only removable with tools. Grates should not have a velocity greater than 1.5 ft/sec and anti vortex covers no greater than 6 ft/sec. Read the Virinia Grame Baker Swimming Pool and Spa Safety act of 2007 for the new requirements for unblockable drains; It is a travisty that this accident occured I am so sorry for your loss.

I am truly sorry for your loss. No one should have to go through this. You were blessed to have such a wondeful little girl for the short time she was here.

What is really sad is that it took the death of the child of a government official to get their attention. When it hits home to the government then something gets done. There was a small child that this happened to years ago but no laws changed, but once it hits home to these officilas something then gets done. Had this law been made after the first little boys bowels getting sucked out this precious little girl may be alive today. There’s lots of laws governing many things that desperately needs changing but until it hits home to those who can really do something about it nothing changes. The government by the people for the people (little children) has failed us.

I was extremely sorry to read that this beautiful young girl has passed away. Such a tragedy. My thoughts and prayers are with her and her family, may she rest in peace.

FYI,
IT WAS NOT A SWIMMING POOL…

SHE WENT INTO A WADING POND AT A GOLF COURSE,,,

To the Taylor family,
Abigail is being cradled in the hands of our Father in Heaven by night and at play with the Angles by day. No more suffering or pain, only love and joy. She pears down at you from above eagerly awaiting to reunite with you. The season is here, soon we will all rejoice in the home that has been prepared for us in Heaven. May God bless you with peacefulness, and understanding.

I can’t believe that FOXNEWS would display the picture of this beautiful little girl. It is bad enough that the tragedy happened but to show her picture I think is crude and insensitive. I have 3 little girls and although, I am glad to be informed of the dangerous nature of swimming pool drains, I think her identity should be kept private.

God Bless Abigail Taylor. What an incredible tragedy. My heart goes out to the family.

Oh Jesus, Please be with that family. I am sorry that you lost your little girl.

I truly truly,feel for this family. I hope the lord brings them many blessings in the future!! There really is no rhyme or reason why these things happen to good people. I have 3 small children myself and i want to thankyou for getting this story out, and tell the perents thank you for not quiting!! One day we will get to see our loved ones again and we will have all the time to do nothing but love them!!! This story made me realize that the tough times we are going thru are nothing compared to what these people are going thru. It made me hug my kids a little bit tighter today and from now on!! Thank you!!

I am in the pool & spa industry and have been for 14 years. The fault for this avoidable tradgedy is:

1. Crappy negligent pool builders who couldn’t pass a 5th grade math exam who install single suction line grate intakes and fail to understand hydraulics 101. Stick your hand over the end of a shop vac hose-sticks uh? Now try that with 10HP pump motor. Not hard to figure out.

2. Crappy design accepted by the owners and permitting agencies and failure to ever correct a glaring problem even after years of use. These accidents have been happening for years and years.

3. Lazy county or state inspectors who are not trained or don’t know the difference between a drain grate or a skimmer intake. They pass these facilities year in and year out citing owners for ridiculous minor things like a rusty gate lock or one missing safety sign while overlooking a massive single suction drain port. STUPID in capital letters!

4. Failure of legislation to not require old existing pools to be retrofitted in some certain time period. New construction has required these for some time but old pools have these problems for decades and are NEVER forced to upgrade. Meanwhile hotel. motel, health clubs, etc profit every year with a dangerous attraction-SHAMEFUL! I know because I do business supplying these profiteers every day.

God bless this family and their little girl. What a sad day for anyone involved. I apologize for all the pathetic lazy people in my industry.

What a beautiful little girl, Abigail. I am so sorry for her lost. She’s is out of pain and and in a beautiful place, Heaven. She is safe now.

I too, have 2 small children and cant even start ti understand the pain that is felt.
God bless Abigail and the family. There is no doubt Abigail is in Heaven, and Heaven is better for it….

This is for sure the most tragic story I have ever read. I hope this lawsuit raises the insurance premium for every county club and yacht club in america so much that they all have to fill in their pools and plant flowers in them. That will certainly prevent this once in a lifetime tragedy from ever happening again.

It doesn,t matter where the pool was…If it was on a golf course than they should have had a FREAKIN FENCE and a WARNING that No one should sit down in the POOLL…HELLO>>>I feel for the PARENTS and this is just a horrific thing to happen to thier CHILD…

Why do they always wait to do something for safety until after someone dies.
I bet they were worried about costs. Safety first, no matter what the costs.

this is a terribly sad and disturbing story. my deepest sympathy to those grieving parents and all who knew and loved Abigail.

What is the status of when this important new federal law goes into effect? It was passed — by both the House and the Senate? or just the house? the story is very ambiguous on that point, and thus is poorly written and not completely informative for the reader.

R.I.P. and bless little Abigail

Such a heartbraking story. As a father I can’t imagine how this loss must be affecting the family. My prayers go out to them.

yeah, i dont think the involvement of “lord jesus” has nothing to do with the horrible tragedy that struck this little girl..

but what about the lawsuit against pentair? it’s a little more serious now that we’re dealing with dead child

My sincere feeling of pain for the parents for this adorable little girl. It is so difficult to find the right words if there are any, at a time like this except to say that I believe in the Holy Bible and I aso believe the promiss’s that are made in it. I know that God did not cause this, nor did he take this little girl because he needed more children, ( this i understand is the belief of some) I am sure that from the scriptures I trust that Satan is ruling this world and in time God will re claim the earth and do away with all the sin on it just as it was done before.

He does not cause it but he does allow it, he is also with all of us when ever we need him. Know that this little girl is no longer in any pain and that the day will come when you will see her again, the promiss of the resurrection is told to us in the Bible.

We Love You Abigal. While Earth may seem like a darker place now, Heavan has become much brighter. Bless you little one.

All Our Love,
The Agneta Family

A lawsuit against the pool equipment manufacturer, yes. A lawsuit against the golf club? No, that reeks of greed.

This is indeed a tragedy. However, no one is negligeble(?) nor irresponsible here. Bad things just happen in our society. It is a sad thing when laws are changed, suits are filed (people becoming rich over the death of their loved one!)and the fabric of our lives are changed because of injury of a certain type happening to 2 0r 3 or 20 or 30 peiople out of a population of 300,000,000! These law suits should not even be allowed in our courts.

Im in ne mn and this story hit home. To answer Randy, Accidents do happen! Any of us can be killed by so many things. This story is truly an accident and I belive yes the pool manager should be fired or the person responsible for draining the pool, And I belive the pool company is at mostly fault because they should have a saftey device on their drains and supply the Pool Manager the items they need to prevent this in the future. Prayers and thoughts goes out to Abigail Taylor’s Family.

my heart and prayers goes out to this poor little girl and her family, anything the family does to help themselves heal is acceptable, shame on the responsible party if there was negligence.

What a horrible story! My heart goes out to this family!

As a previous poster said..”Now they are going to change the law”! Why only now?
It reminds me of another story and I don’t know if any safety measures have been put in place since this one happened.

A little girl suffered similar injuries when she flushed the toilet while sitting on an aeroplane toilet.
I wonder what follow-up came with that.
I’ve never seen a warning about that in an aeroplane bathroom.

Why hasn’t technology been developed that senses the amount of suction a drain is pulling and shuts down when it exceeds a set level or detects a clog in the flow? If it has been developed why hasn’t it been required to retro fit every pool in America that uses such drain suctioning equipment? We have the technology to prevent these accidents outside of simple anit-entrapment drain covers which I’m sure someone will end up getting trapped on them anyway. Also why do we always need to have a tradgedy before we decide to develop ways to prevent it?

Americans everywhere need to stay on top of their legislators to get this developed and laws passed.

My God,…I thought this dangerous “swimming-pool-bottom-drain” situation was legislated against and proscribed years ago !! What the hell does it take to end the senseless deaths caused to people enjoying recreational swimming pools ?!? Much as I despise class lawsuits and the bottom-feeding lawyers who generate and profit handsomely from them, this is a case where such a suit is justified. After all, were not talking about redesigning a spaceship, we’re talking about a fifty dollar (or less) pooldrain cover that ALREADY EXISTS and is utilized in thousands of pools as ‘replacement’ covers. If a publically used pool doesn’t have them by now, the owners of those pools DESERVE to have their butts sued off !! …And these fools thought diving boards were dangerous and had no problem ‘legislating’ against those all around the country (maybe the insurance companies need to take some major ‘hits’ over pool-drain-covers before some action will be taken).

We send our most Heart felt Condolences, and Love.

This is very, very sad; a very terrible tradegy. It’s just horrible. But, the worst thing in response is more regulation, which unfortunately has made us grow far less vigilent by providing a false kind of expectation that everything is “supposed” to be safe. NO, not everything is safe. Years ago, for example, everyone going into a pool knew to stay away from pool drains, just like staying away from oncoming traffic or staying out of fire. Today, with our over-regulated world, people don’t even bother to think. And then, a tragedy like this happens, and instead of realizing that the root cause is our growing lack of responsibility and vigilence because of too many regulations, what do people do? They try to regulate more, which can only create more tragedies as people lose their individual ability to recognize danger and take responsibility, rather then having it legislated. What a dangerous, slippery slope.

I am so sorry for your little girl.

How sad that a little girl, so vibrant, so beautiful and so innocent could have such a horrendous and terrifying accident such as this. How devastating. My heart goes out to her family. Their suffering has been beyond belief. I hope the parents can eventually heal. My prayers are with her family and friends who have lost such a beautiful little girl.

My heartfelt condolences go out to the Taylor family. As a father who has lost a daughter, I know the heartache you feel. My prayers are with you.

I know I will sound cold and cruel… but I did not see anywhere in this story that the young girls parents, or any legislators, are pushing for EDUCATION in parents instructing their children to NEVER SIT on something like this in the first place. If the suction is that strong a bit of education and common sense would have prevented this from happening in the first place.

It’s time people begin taking responsibility for their actions (I’m not speaking of the young girl in this instance) or of their inactions (I AM speaking of her parents for not educating their child in the first place). One of the major problems of our society is that people want to blame everyone and everything before looking at themselves as the possible cause to a problem. Take responsibility, stop being victims, and we will be a better nation for it.

Here is a simple solution to the problem, make a metal cage 3 feet by 3 feet and cover the drain, make the grates about 1″ so as to let water go through with no problem, but to keep little feet and hands out, that way nobody can get within 3 feet of the suction in the first place! Then this poor little girl would still be here today. Wake up people!