Boy flown to Children’s Hospital after near-drowning at Clark Center Park

After family members and emergency responders started CPR, a boy who had gone missing while swimming at Clark Center Park in Oak Ridge on Saturday afternoon was flown by medical helicopter to East Tennessee Children’s Hospital in Knoxville, authorities said.

On Sunday afternoon, Oak Ridge Fire Chief Darryl Kerley said he didn’t know the current condition of the boy, who might be about eight years old.

The boy had been moved to Intensive Care at Children’s Hospital, Kerley said.

“That’s all we know at the moment,” he said.

The chief said the family had been swimming about 150 feet away from the beach at a picnic area at Clark Center Park when relatives noticed the boy was gone. They started CPR when they found him and called 911. The Oak Ridge police and fire departments responded and continued CPR. Anderson County Emergency Medical Services transported the boy to the Lifestar medical helicopter, which picked up the child at a softball field at the park.

Kerley and his wife brought the boy’s mother to Children’s Hospital.

Kerley said the child had a pulse and medical workers were preparing to move him into an intensive care unit about 45 minutes after the incident.

Kerley said he wasn’t sure if any lifeguards were working where the family was swimming.

More information will be added as it becomes available.