Sunday Mail article Caution - death is mentioned
This article was in today's Sunday mail and thought I would post the story here...caution, before reading, death is mentioned. It's good I feel to put a warning for parents and others to choose to want to read these sorts of stories.

And to think this story came out after the last article on the Child Protection Series by Margaret Wenham...

http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/story...11,00.html

Toddler drowns in foster family's pool
Sarah Vogler and Paula Doneman
January 4, 2009 Sunday Mail

THE parents of a two-year-old boy who drowned at the home of his foster family say they still cannot believe their baby boy is gone.

Their son, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was playing on a plastic bike at the rear of his foster family's home in Kuraby in Brisbane when he found his way into the back-yard pool on Friday evening.

He is the second toddler to drown in Queensland since New Year's Day.

The Sunday Mail believes the child's foster mother could hear the boy riding his bike. When she could no longer hear him playing she frantically searched for him and found him floating face-down in the pool.

Police said she and her husband gave the child CPR before paramedics arrived and took over about 6pm. He could not be revived.

“I cannot believe it,” said the child's biological father while comforting his devastated partner. “He was happy, bubbly...loved to dance to Gwen Stefani. I delivered him myself.” The couple said they learned the devastating news only at 11pm on Friday – five hours after their son died – and were told they would not be able to see their son's body until tomorrow.

They said the coroner's office then called them, requesting permission to perform an autopsy on their son. “We are not important enough to be notified when it happens but we are important enough to be rung up by the coroner's office to get permission to cut him open,” the boy's father said.

It is not known how the child gained entry to the pool but a Brisbane City Council inspector and engineer inspected the pool after the incident as standard procedure. Police also conducted tests around the pool area.

Deputy Mayor Graham Quirk said the council officers would prepare a report for police who will refer it to the coroner.

The boy's mother said the toddler had been in the care of the Department of Child Safety since February last year.

A Child Safety Department spokeswoman said the department was unable to comment on the case for legal reasons.