TOWN OF POUGHKEEPSIE – A search and rescue mission for a five-year-old boy who went missing Sunday in the Arlington section of the Town of Poughkeepsie ended with tragic results. Arlington firefighters located the boy’s lifeless body in a drainage ditch just before 5 p.m. Firefighters performed lifesaving techniques at the scene in an attempt to revive the child before transporting him to MidHudson Regional Hospital.
The Arlington firefighters were summoned to the area of Manchester Gardens Apartments around 4:30 p.m. to assist the Town of Poughkeepsie police, who had been searching for nearly an hour, to search a drainage area for the missing youth. The mission evolved into a full-scale search and rescue mission, with the Arlington Fire Department’s internal swiftwater rescue team deployed to the scene.
Shortly after the specially-trained rescuers entered the series of drainage culverts, filled with several feet of water, the boy’s body was recovered in “chest-high” water, according to Arlington Fire District officials.
The firefighters immediately began lifesaving measures before rushing him to MidHudson Regional Hospital. A LifeNet medevac helicopter was requested to meet the Arlington medics at the scene to airlift the child to Westchester Medical Center’s pediatric trauma unit.
The Arlington ambulance arrived at the hospital and hurried the patient inside, just minutes before the helicopter landed at the hospital. The flight medic crew shut the helicopter down and slowly proceeded into the emergency department with the stretcher to transport the child.
Several minutes passed without the child being placed on the chopper for the flight. Sources at the hospital told Mid-Hudson News that the child had been pronounced dead at the hospital and was not being airlifted.
Arlington Fire District Chief Bill Steenburgh said the department chaplain was going to be meeting with the firefighters at the firehouse on Sunday evening to console the men who tried to save the boy.
The Town of Poughkeepsie police are investigating the death. Anyone with information is asked to contact them at 845-485-3666.
