A Putnam County teen who was rescued from the bottom of Lake Sinclair Saturday evening succumbed to his injuries Sunday at a Macon hospital.
Kayden Weathers, 13, of Long Shoals Road, died at 4:17 p.m. Sunday at Atrium Health Navicent Children’s Care in Macon, said Putnam County Coroner Hollis Harrison.
The cause of death is from complications associated to drowning, Harrison added.
Kayden was spending the day on July 4th with family and friends on Putnam Beach at the Lake Sinclair Recreation Area, Putnam County Sheriff Howard Sills said. A friend told Putnam Deputy Sheriff Hollie Collins that Kayden was out in the lake, holding onto the buoy line that separates the deep water from the shallow water.
The friend said he heard Kayden call out to him and ask for help because he (Kayden) couldn’t swim.
“And by the time he got to where Kayden was, Kayden was nowhere to be found,” Collins’ report reveals.
Collins responded to the 911 call that had come in at 7:14 p.m. The caller said the teen was missing; but as Collins drove there, another call came in saying that he had been found under the water, unresponsive, and other swimmers had brought him to shore.
Collins said when she arrived, a registered nurse, Tiffany Woodard, was performing CPR on Kayden. Woodard told the deputy that the teen had been underwater at least a minute and a half before he was pulled out. Collins and Deputy Sgt. Jim Barbee also took turns doing CPR until paramedics arrived. Collins continued the CPR after Kayden was put in the ambulance, while medics started an IV.
When Putnam County Fire Department’s first responders arrived, they took over performing CPR. The teen’s pulse returned while en route to Putnam General Hospital, according to Collins’ report. He was flown by a medical helicopter from PGH to the Macon hospital.