Girl pulled from Wirth Park pool in very critical condition

WAUWATOSA --The eight-year-old girl who was pulled from the Wirth Park pool in Brookfield on Tuesday, July 3rd is in very critical condition as of Wednesday, according to officials at Children's Hospital of Wisconsin. Despite some concerns, the pool was reopened Wednesday for holiday hours.

The girl was swimming with a camp group from New Berlin when she was spotted by lifeguards not moving in the pool. The girl was rescued by lifeguards, who began to perform CPR before rushing her to the hospital.

The Wirth Park Pool was a popular place to be again on Wednesday, as people looked to the water to escape from the extreme heat.

Brookfield's Parks, Recreation and Forestry Director Bill Kolstad said Wednesday he is concerned about the lifeguards who responded to the little girl.

"We're proud of the job that they did and the city is going to be making some group and individual counseling resources available to them as we move through this situation," Kolstad said.

Kolstad also says his staff is fully trained and continues to train throughout the year.

That training is noticed by parents like Antonio Martinez, who was first in line waiting for the pool to open Wednesday.

"Our plans didn't change at all. We planned a whole week in advance to come here today," Martinez said.

"This is the first incident that I know of here at Wirth. I still feel good about coming here with my kids," another parent, Kimmy Banaszynski said.

The Wirth Park pool was shut down for the remainder of the day on Tuesday, following the incident. The pool reopened on Wednesday for scheduled for holiday hours.

Counselors talked with the lifeguard and pool staff Wednesday. They encouraged everyone to talk with each other, their parents, supervisors and anyone who could help them work through the emotional issues this accident may have caused.

"We wanted to make sure that we assessed our staff and situation appropriately and had the adequate amount of staff on duty to handle any crowd size we`d see from the conditions," Kolstad said.

Monitor FOX6 News and FOX6Now.com for updates on this developing story.

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