Drowning Prevention Foundation
California
Nadina Riggsbee's Story (Founder)
Samira's Death and JJ's Near-Drowning
Samira Riggsbee was two; her brother JJ a year younger. On July 14, 1978, the Riggsbees left their children with a teen-aged babysitter, to share a quiet dinner alone. Later, the babysitter felt ill and went to the bathroom, leaving Samira and JJ in the family room. She returned in fifteen minutes; the sliding glass door was open. Both children were floating face down in the pool. A neighbor heard her scream, called 911 and summoned the Riggsbees. When they arrived at the hospital, a nurse and firefighter wouldn't make eye contact. Samira was dead. JJ was in critical condition.
Through Grief to Advocacy
JJ's brain was severely injured. Nadina stayed at the hospital for four months, unable to go home to an empty house. It became clear that JJ would be severely disabled. After seven months, she looked unsuccessfully for a "place" for him. In June, 1979, she decided to take him home, the youngest child ever to go home with that level of disability.
JJ had a tracheal tube, quadriplegia, severe brain damage, and need for around the clock care. Nadina's time was consumed by JJ and her newborn son Eric. She bore two more children in quick succession. As JJ grew older, she fought every step of the way for him to be in school. Since 1979, Nadina's advocacy skills have been finely honed by working with hospital, health care and school bureaucracies on JJ's behalf.
Drowning prevention became her other passion. In 1980 Nadina began to study the problem. She found that drowning was the leading cause of all deaths in California's children ages 1-4 years. When she asked a doctor why no one did anything about drowning, she was told, "nobody has bothered".
She "bothered." She advocated environmental protection, primarily mandatory four-sided fencing of residential swimming pools. In 1982, she attended a luncheon, where the guest speaker was a member of the Board of Supervisors for Contra Costa County. She moved the seating cards at his table so that she could sit next to him, to educate him about pool fencing.