Tragedy struck Long County on Monday when a 5-year-old boy, described as friendly and outgoing, drowned in a bathtub.
“He was a wonderful child who never met a stranger he didn’t like,” Tim Callahan said of his stepson, Caleb Fox.
According to Long County Sheriff’s Department Chief Detective Ty Smith, emergency personnel responded to a call to the Callahans’ Horse Creek Mobile Home Park home around 1:30 p.m. An LCSD incident report said the child’s mother, Patricia Callahan, 25, said she put her child, Caleb Fox, in the bathtub to clean him up after he vomited. Callahan said the boy had been sick and she had given him some children’s Tylenol.
Tim Callahan, a soldier who was on a field exercise at the time, said his wife did not leave her son in the tub for long.
“He was in the tub for only a few minutes and she had called to him to make sure he was OK. He did not respond back so she ran to see what was wrong,” Tim Callahan said.
He said the child had had fever-induced seizures “We feel this may have been the cause, but we’re waiting for the autopsy to be sure.”
Patricia Callahan pulled Caleb from the tub and called 911. According to the report, the tub contained four inches of water.
According to Smith, LCSD Deputy Cody Futch got to the home around 1:30 p.m. and began administering CPR. Ludowici/Long County Volunteer Fire
Department firefighters Allen Rhoden, Richard Truman and Charles Stanfield arrived next and alsoadministered CPR.
A Long/Liberty County EMS unit took the child to Liberty Regional Medical Center in Hinesville, continuing the CPR.
According to the incident report, Caleb could not be revived and was pronounced dead at 2:26 p.m.
Smith said the drowning appears to have been an accident, but the body was taken to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation crime lab in Savannah for an autopsy.
The report lists Chad Fox as the boy’s father. He lives in North Carolina.
Lewis Levine contributed to this story.
“He was a wonderful child who never met a stranger he didn’t like,” Tim Callahan said of his stepson, Caleb Fox.
According to Long County Sheriff’s Department Chief Detective Ty Smith, emergency personnel responded to a call to the Callahans’ Horse Creek Mobile Home Park home around 1:30 p.m. An LCSD incident report said the child’s mother, Patricia Callahan, 25, said she put her child, Caleb Fox, in the bathtub to clean him up after he vomited. Callahan said the boy had been sick and she had given him some children’s Tylenol.
Tim Callahan, a soldier who was on a field exercise at the time, said his wife did not leave her son in the tub for long.
“He was in the tub for only a few minutes and she had called to him to make sure he was OK. He did not respond back so she ran to see what was wrong,” Tim Callahan said.
He said the child had had fever-induced seizures “We feel this may have been the cause, but we’re waiting for the autopsy to be sure.”
Patricia Callahan pulled Caleb from the tub and called 911. According to the report, the tub contained four inches of water.
According to Smith, LCSD Deputy Cody Futch got to the home around 1:30 p.m. and began administering CPR. Ludowici/Long County Volunteer Fire
Department firefighters Allen Rhoden, Richard Truman and Charles Stanfield arrived next and alsoadministered CPR.
A Long/Liberty County EMS unit took the child to Liberty Regional Medical Center in Hinesville, continuing the CPR.
According to the incident report, Caleb could not be revived and was pronounced dead at 2:26 p.m.
Smith said the drowning appears to have been an accident, but the body was taken to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation crime lab in Savannah for an autopsy.
The report lists Chad Fox as the boy’s father. He lives in North Carolina.
Lewis Levine contributed to this story.