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Rocky Mount mother seeks answers about 9-year-old son's coma

A Rocky Mount mother wants answers about what happened to her 9-year-old son, who was found unconscious at the bottom of a swimming pool during a summer camp trip last week.

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ROCKY MOUNT, N.C. — A Rocky Mount mother wants answers about what happened to her 9-year-old son, who was found unconscious at the bottom of a swimming pool during a summer camp trip last week.

Jaekwon Williams is in a coma at Vidant Medical Center in Greenville, where he was taken following the Aug. 11 incident at Lions Water Adventure in Kinston. The boy was part of the city's Williford Summer Day Camp, and the group had taken a day trip to the water park.

Jaekwon was found uat the deep end of the pool. Emergency workers were able to resuscitate him, but he did not regain consciousness, said Tom Taft, an attorney for the boy’s mother, Jasmine Williams.

“It’s not clear as to whether he will ever recover from that coma,” Taft said during a news conference Tuesday to draw attention to the case. “Only time and prayers will tell.”

Taft said he has filed Freedom of Information Act requests and talked with authorities, but no answers are forthcoming.

“We don’t know how this child – who’s never swam in his life – how he ended up in water over his head and how this occurred,” Taft said.

Williams, who has five children, said she wants to know what happened and who was supposed to be watching her child.

“When I left him, he was playing and talking,” she said, breaking down in tears. “(Now) that’s not my child that I left them with to take care of.”

Bill Johnson, a spokesman with the Kinston Department of Public Safety, called the incident a "tragic accident" and said in a statement that his department is conducting an investigation and reviewing all safety policies. He said the city is working with the family to provide information.

Taft acknowledged that the process may take some time.

Meanwhile, Williams agonizes over her child.

“I haven’t slept much,” she said. “It’s hard for me. I (don’t) want to leave his side because I don’t want anything changing when I’m not there.”

 

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