At about 4:43 p.m. on Sunday afternoon the Stanton County Sheriff’s office was notified of a near drowning involving a 4-year-old Male at the Maskenthine Lake beach area. In just over three minutes two deputies and the Sheriff arrived on scene and took over emergency treatment of the boy who was unresponsive. A medical helicopter was called for and after being stabilized by Pilger EMS and Stanton Rescue personnel the boy was taken directly from the scene by Life Net medical helicopter to Childrens hospital in Omaha. The investigation at the scene indicated the boy went under water for a short period of time, several yards from the shoreline after just taking of his life jacket and was pulled from underneath the water by an adult who witnessed him struggling. The boy and his family from rural Lindsay were enjoying a sunny day birthday party at the lake. The beach area was closed out of respect for the incident by LENRD staff. The lake has been the scene of six fatal drownings in the past 35 years, including an adult male in the beach swimming area in the late 1990’s.
