Oakland, June 1936 1

On June 21 of 1936, Edward Kiel and his family made their way from Little Ferry, N.J. to the shores of the Sandy Beach in Oakland for a days outing. Summer had officially started at 10:22 that morning and the temperature was in the mid 80s with clear skies. Edward was only five years old when he went to for a swim on the longest day of the year, and it was almost the last day for him.

Swimming with his family that day, Edward Kiel went missing. He apparently had gone beyond his depth and slipped under the water, silently. His lifeless body was pulled to the surface by Charles Kley, a young emergency lifeguard. The summer bliss was broken by the ultimate tragedy as the boy appeared to be dead to those gathered on the beach that afternoon. But in what many considered to be a futile attempt, Charles began to administer first aid treatment to the boy. He continued these efforts until Police Chief Frank Marian arrived with an inhalator- a relatively new device at the time to assist artificial respiration.

The men maintained their faith that the boy could be revived, and after fifteen minutes of continuous first aid, Edward Kiel began to show signs of life. State Troopers soon arrived and took over as they transported the boy to the office of a local physician . By the time they were ready to move the boy to Hackensack, where they could access better medical facilities, Edward Kiel was well on his way to recovery.

The photo accompanying this story was taken a few weeks after the incident involving Edward. We can assume that the Schoonmaker family, who supplied this photo, would have heard of the frightening events that befell Edward Kiel, and Mrs. Schoonmaker had kept an extra close eye on her boy that afternoon on Sandy Beach.

This story from 1936 has a happy ending, but there have been many over the years that do not.

• In 2005, there were 3,582 fatal unintentional drownings in the United States, averaging ten deaths per day.

• More than one in four fatal drowning victims are children 14 and younger. For every child who dies from drowning, another four received emergency department care for nonfatal submersion injuries.

• Nonfatal drownings can cause brain damage that may result in long-term disabilities including memory problems, learning disabilities, and permanent loss of basic functioning

• In 2005, of all children 1 to 4 years old who died, almost 30% died from drowning. Fatal drowning remains the second-leading cause of unintentional injury-related death for children ages 1 to 14 years

Make sure you have a happy ending to the summer of 2008