NEWS & BLOG

Girl Whose Disembowelment Led To Pool Legislation Dies

OMAHA, Neb. — A 6-year-old girl who underwent a rare transplant surgery after her intestines were sucked out in a swimming pool has died in an Omaha hospital.

Abigail Taylor’s family said she died Thursday evening. Bob Bennett is an attorney for the Taylor family. He said Abigail’s parents were with her when she died at Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha.

NMC’s Paul Baltes confirmed to KETV NewsWatch 7 that Abigail died at the hospital, where she has been under care since the operation. Baltes was not sure whether an autopsy or exact cause of death would be released to the public.

Abigail was injured when she sat on a pool drain, and its powerful suction ripped out part of her intestinal tract on June 29. She underwent transplant surgery in December at the Nebraska hospital to receive a new small bowel, liver and pancreas.

The Minneapolis Star Tribune reported in November that Taylor’s family filed suit against the pool manufacturer and the Minneapolis Golf Club.

“The suit blamed both the club, located in St. Louis Park, Minn, and Sta-Rite Industries, a pool equipment manufacturer owned by a Golden Valley company, for the accident, in which 21 feet of Abigail Taylor’s small intestine were sucked out when she landed on an uncovered suction outlet in the kiddie pool in June,” the paper reported.

In December, President George W. Bush signed The Virginia Graeme Baker Pool and Spa Safety Act of 2007, according to SafeKids.net. The legislation provides incentives for states to adopt comprehensive pool safety laws that will protect children from life-threatening injuries and deaths from potentially dangerous pool and spa drains.