BOCA RATON – Six days after he was found face down in a body of water outside his west Boca Raton home, a 3-year-old boy with autism has died, the Florida Department of Children and Families confirmed.
The boy died Feb. 8, DCF records show, after multiple days in the intensive care unit.
The boy was playing at about noon Feb. 2 on his family’s back screened-in patio at a home in the Palmetto Pinesdevelopment, on West Palmetto Park Road west of State Road 7, the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office said. His mother was watching him from inside the house.
She went outside to check on the boy and learned he had gotten out of the patio through a broken screen, the sheriff’s office said.
The mother found the toddler face-down in the water. Relatives performed CPR on the boy until rescue crews arrived.
It is unclear whether the boy was in a pool or a canal. DCF records indicate the toddler “ripped” through a screen door and gained access to the family’s swimming pool. The sheriff’s office said the boy was found in a canal.
The Department of Children and Families had investigated the boy’s family within the last year, records show.
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