Tragedy has struck twice in just days across Trinidad and Tobago, following the jet ski collision death of 7-year-old Angelica Saydee Jogie in Tobago waters. The latest child water safety incident saw 6-year-old Skylar Gabriel, a child with high-functioning autism, hospitalized in critical condition after a near-drowning at a public pool in Gasparillo’s Bumper Jumperz Fun Park on Friday.
After the accident, Skylar was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit at San Fernando General Hospital (SFGH), where as of Sunday, medical updates showed encouraging signs of improvement. The young girl was submerged for multiple minutes in 4 feet of water before being pulled out, and her ventilator support has increased from 35% to 50% as her breathing stabilizes. Skylar’s parents, Desire Walters, a firefighter, and Sheldon Gabriel, a fire service officer, confirmed their daughter’s condition is “looking up” during a visit from the *Sunday Express*.
Walters pushed back against unkind online speculation from social media users unfamiliar with their family, emphasizing her commitment to her daughter’s safety as the parent of a child with autism. “As a mother of a child with autism, you always have to be looking here and there, 24/7,” she said, acknowledging the incident was an unforeseen slip-up. The couple explained they had turned their backs to unpack supplies for their daughter moments after arriving at the park, and Skylar, who is familiar with water park routines, walked straight to the pool. “It happened quickly. It was a slip-up,” Walters added.
The family also pointed out critical safety gaps at the facility: unlike other water parks Skylar has visited, Bumper Jumperz Fun Park provided no complimentary life jackets and had no on-duty lifeguard at the time of the accident. Gabriel, who performed CPR on his own unresponsive daughter after locating her, described a disturbing delay in response from park staff. For several minutes, he and Walters searched the facility for Skylar without any assistance from employees or other guests. “We told the staff she was missing, but the music continued playing. It was only after she was found that the staff came running,” he said. As a trained emergency responder, Gabriel said blocking out all surrounding chaos to administer CPR to his own child was an experience no parent should ever have to endure. “Right now, my child is looking up and that is what I’m focused on,” he added.
Closed-circuit television footage from the facility, which police have already taken possession of and the *Sunday Express* reviewed, offers a clear timeline of the accident. The nearly 10-minute recording shows Skylar, unprotected by any flotation device, playing alone in the children’s pool while her parents sit with their backs turned roughly 4 feet away under a shaded tent. Around the one-minute mark, Skylar leaves the shallow children’s pool, climbs the stairs to the water slide leading to the deeper adult pool, rides down, and submerges without re-emerging. Her parents begin searching a minute later, and their search extends for several minutes before she is located. Approximately 40 guests were present in the pool area at the time, with other adults supervising their own children using the same slide.
Local police confirmed that after Skylar was pulled from the 45-foot by 20-foot pool (which ranges from 3 to 5 feet deep), Emergency Health Services responded, detected a pulse, and rushed the child to SFGH for urgent ICU care.
In a statement to the *Sunday Express* at the park Sunday, an unnamed spokesperson for Bumper Jumperz Fun Park – which has operated for 15 months without a prior serious incident – said the accident is deeply concerning, but emphasized that parental supervision is the primary responsibility for child safety at the facility. The spokesperson confirmed the park has been without a full-time lifeguard for three weeks while actively recruiting for the role, and that clear signage is posted throughout the property notifying guests of the lack of on-duty lifeguards and requiring parents to accompany children at all times. He added that two pool monitors were on staff the day of the accident, and that the team was not notified in advance that Skylar was autistic, though staff have experience working with neurodivergent children.
The spokesperson also noted that flotation devices and life jackets are available for purchase at affordable prices starting at $30, and that the park’s emergency protocol was not activated because staff were never alerted that Skylar was missing until after she was found. “We have steps in place that if an alarm is raised, we sound the horn, we pull everyone from the pool and we conduct a thorough search,” he explained. Operations continued at the park Sunday, and the spokesperson said the team has reached out to Skylar’s family and is praying for her full recovery, while urging all parents to maintain constant vigilance when their children are near water, especially for children with special needs.
This latest incident comes as communities across Trinidad and Tobago are already reeling from the death of 7-year-old Angelica just two days prior, reigniting public debate over water safety regulations and enforcement at public recreational facilities across the twin islands.