Dec. 21: Abigail pulls through -- with a smile

Abigail Taylor, the 6-year- old Edina girl who lost 21 feet of small intestine in a pool accident, remained in serious condition after a liver, pancreas and small-bowel transplant from an unknown donor.

By JOY POWELL, Star Tribune

Last update: March 21, 2008 - 10:45 AM

Though she was still woozy after her rare multi-organ transplant, Abigail Taylor managed to smile Wednesday when her father told her that President Bush had signed a new pool-safety law that could protect other kids from such horrendous accidents.

Six-year-old Abigail, of Edina, lost 21 feet of small intestine when she sat on an open drain last summer at a wading pool in St. Louis Park. The drain cover had apparently come loose or was removed.

Abigail, a first-grader at Concord Elementary School in Edina, remained in serious condition Thursday after a liver, pancreas and small-bowel transplant at Nebraska Medical Center on Monday.

Her father, Scott Taylor, said the coincidence of Congress passing the new legislation on the same day as the transplant was nothing short of a Christmas story involving the gift of life from an unknown donor.

He expressed gratitude for the new federal law; for the help from so many friends, neighbors and medical workers; and for the grieving parents who had donated their own child's organs.

"Someday down the line, I hope to be able to reach out and let them know that through their loss, that they were able to give the ultimate gift to my daughter," Taylor said. "We are eternally grateful for that."

But Sen. Amy Klobuchar, who authored the legislation, said the new law is really a gift that the Taylor family has given the nation -- one that will protect all people, especially children.

Scott Taylor, who returned Thursday to the Twin Cities from Omaha, and Klobuchar held a news conference on the new law. It bans the manufacture, sale or distribution of swimming pool covers that do not meet anti-entrapment safety standards.

Taylor had persuaded Klobuchar to expand the bill to cover not only new pools but also those existing, including in hotels, fitness clubs and apartment complexes. A second amendment, also authored by Klobuchar, requires that public pools have automatic shutoffs that lessen suction when someone gets stuck on a drain.

All public pool operators will have one year to comply with the new standards.

From 1990 to 2005, at least 130 people have been caught by the suction of pool and spa drains, leading to 27 deaths and many more serious injuries. Most of the victims have been children, according to statistics from the U.S. Product Safety Commission.

Abigail's ordeal renewed the call for pool-safety legislation. It was first introduced after the death of former Secretary of State James Baker's granddaughter, Virginia Graeme Baker, who was trapped in a spa and drowned in 2002.

Scott Taylor said he had committed himself to fulfilling Abigail's wish, which she voiced two days after her accident: that no other child should go through the same horror. It left her on a feeding tube, with a colostomy bag.

"As a father I needed to make something good come from this tragedy," Taylor said. "This bill is a very, very good first step in the right direction in making sure that this doesn't happen to anybody else."

Taylor said he and his wife, Katey Taylor, agreed to give up a part of their lives and their privacy for a while, "because this is the right thing to do."

He thanked Klobuchar, Rep. Jim Ramstad, R-Minn., and other lawmakers. And he spoke of how Abigail herself lobbied senators for the law. She wasn't a bit intimidated.

"For a 6-year-old," Taylor said, "it was pretty amazing. I suppose after you go through what she's been through, what's a couple of U.S. senators?"

Joy Powell • 612-673-7750

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