SAN ANTONIO – The family of a 4-year-old who drowned in his family’s pool over Independence Day weekend shared photos of the boy with KSAT and remembered him as someone who “loved with all his heart.”
The boy, Christian Bishop, died Monday morning after he was found unresponsive in his family’s pool on the Fourth of July. The incident occurred on the city’s North Side.
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Authorities said the boy was swimming with his 7-year-old sister in the backyard pool.
According to the boy’s father, the family went back inside of their home and Christian snuck back outside to continue swimming after changing into his swimming suit.
According to Christian’s family, family members were still within eyesight of the pool and were able to pull him out of the water and perform CPR prior to EMS personnel arriving on the scene.
Christian was taken to North Central Baptist Hospital in serious condition, San Antonio police said following the drowning. Medical personnel were able to bring back his pulse, but Christian died Monday morning, according to the family.
Christian’s father, Charles, said he spoke to him 20 minutes before the drowning and said Christian had changed into daytime clothes and normally obeyed what he was told to do. Charles believed the boy to be safe in the home.
However, Charles said he heard Christian ask his wife, Amy, if he could go back in the pool and his sister later told the family she saw the boy change back into swim trunks.
“Christian had been wearing a life jacket that morning,” Charles said. “He did not put it back on. Christian had swimming lessons and thought he could reach a floaty in the deep end.”
As soon as family members left the house, screaming started, Charles said as the family attempted to rescue the boy from the bottom of the pool and perform CPR on him.
“He had color in his face, but as I did CPR, his lips turned blue,” Charles said in a statement to KSAT. “The cops and paramedics arrived so fast. I felt him die, but I thought they would save him. They got there so fast.”
Charles said Christian will be remembered by his family for having an engine that seemed to know no limit and a heart that only knew how to love.
“I can say that he loved with all his heart. He was the most competitive spirit I’ve ever known,” Charles said in a statement to KSAT. “I never saw him upset unless he had lost a race. He loved his momma, Amy, and Nana.”
Christian’s family is coping with the loss by remembering him as he was when they last saw him, a light of their world and fixture of the family.
“He was one of the lights of our world, and there is more light in this family than I ever knew,” Charles said in a statement to KSAT. “I’m not afraid to be home because everywhere I look, I see him running. He never stopped running unless we wanted him to eat or sleep. His smile is a burn-in memory, every time that you look at him. His movements made him beautiful.”