11-Year-Old Boy Dies After Being Impaled Trying to Leave Swimming Pool

11-Year-Old Boy Dies After Being Impaled Trying to Leave Swimming Pool
Floating in a swimming pool. (Bárbara Montavon/Unsplash)

An 11-year-old boy died after getting impaled on a fence near a swimming pool.

The boy was part of a group of kids that trespassed into a locked apartment complex’s swimming pool in Fort Worth, Texas, Fox 4 reported. When they were discovered by security, they rushed to escape, and climbed back over the fence, at around 7 p.m. Jean Pierre Mwenge accidentally impaled himself on an iron post during the escape.

He was taken to Cook Children’s Medical Center, where he died shortly after. He was pronounced dead a little after 8 p.m.

Mwenge was a fifth-grade student at Clifford Davis Elementary School, Fort Worth Independent School District spokesman Clint Bond confirmed with NBC 5.

Electrified Fence

A 12-year-old Georgia boy died in October after he tried to climb an electrified fence near an athletic field.

Melquan Kwame Robinson was attempting to retrieve a football when he made contact with the fence, The Augusta Chronicle reported. The boy was at football practice when the tragedy occurred.

A live wire touching the fence caused the fence to be a conduit for the electricity. Robinson was able to get over the fence, but when he tried to climb back, he was electrocuted. Two other children were injured when they tried to help him. An adult was also injured in connection with the tragedy.

“The friends, the way they responded, what motivates a young boy that young to jump into action and help their friend out,” said Don Clark, a family friend and Robinson’s former coach, via The Augusta Chronicle. “Those are the two young boys that are in the hospital right now because they were trying to help out a friend.”

“Georgia Power’s condolences and sympathies are with the individuals and their families following last night’s tragic event at Fleming Athletic Complex,” said a statement from Georgia Power, obtained by the Chronicle. “Our preliminary investigation indicates that Georgia Power does not control or maintain the voltage that energized the fences at the complex.”

According to an investigation by WRDW, the fence was not always inspected according to schedule; WRDW did not find an inspection report for the month before Robinson was electrocuted. Another possibility is that the fence was inspected but no inspection report was filed.

“My head touched the gate and I just saw a light in my eyes and I closed my eyeballs and I thought I’d died at first,” said 11-year-old David Sette, one of the injured survivors, via WRDW.

Robinson attended Morgan Road Middle School. He was in the seventh grade. He was a member of the Trinity Elite Titans football team.

Fence Leads to Asphyxiation

A mother from Georgetown, Texas, started an awareness campaign about the dangers of fences to children, after her 2-year-old son died when his head became lodged between two fence posts, causing asphyxiation.

Julie Damian hopes to convince stores to only sell fences with flat tops instead of sharp tops, KVUE reported.

She described how a fence led to her son’s death.

“My husband found him on the fence and his neck was caught in between the rails,” Damian told KVUE. “At the top there’s those bars that stick up and it’s a low fence, about four feet, but it’s got those horizontal bars, a low one and a top one and he had apparently pulled himself up using the bottom rungs to step on and tried to pull up over and when he did pull over, he got stuck.”

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