4-Year Old Boy with Dravet Syndrome Drowns in Connecticut Pool
A 4-year-old boy who was diagnosed with the rare epilectic Dravet syndrome drowned in a pool on Saturday in Connecticut.
The boy, Tristan Peterson, was the son of New Haven police Capt. Joann Peterson. He was found at the bottom of a neighbor's swimming pool, rushed to Yale-New Haven Hospital in full cardiac arrest and was pronounced dead at the hospital, reports NBC Connecticut.
A family friend Joseph Avery said the boy wandered into the neighbors' yard and fell into the pool, according to the New Haven Register.
The boy was diagnosed with a severe epileptic syndrome known as Dravet Syndrome which has been diagnosed in only about 600 children in the world, the Associated Press reported.
Dravet Syndrome
Dravet syndrome was first described in 1978 by Dr. Charlotte Dravet as "Severe Myoclonic Epilepsy of Infancy (SMEI)." Dravet syndrome is at the most severe end of the Dravet Spectrum Disorder, a group of related epilepsies having a similar genetic cause.
The first seizures usually happen before one year of age, with no known cause other than fever or illness. The key features of Dravet syndrome are febrile seizures and status epilepticus, according to the site Dravet.org.