BRADENTON, Fla. -- A Manatee County mother is demanding accountability after she says her child was found by a stranger unconscious on a playground.

  • Manatee mom says camp staff forgot her son on playground
  • Woman: Stranger called her as her son had heat-related illness
  • Camp staff say they are making changes to avoid another incident

The stranger found her son, Carter, passed out on the Bradenton playground, suffering from a heat-related illness last week.

Now, the summer camp is offering an apology and says it is implementing new policies to try to prevent a repeat of a situation that could have ended horribly. 

"I don’t understand how this happened. I really don't," Kelly Fraser said.

Carter, 7, was found unconscious not by one of the counselors at GT Bray Summer Camp who were supposed to watch him, but another family who happened to be in the area. 

"I just found your son," Fraser said, retelling the phone call she received. "He was totally passed out. I had to shake him three times to get him awake."

The boy, Carter, was able to give the people his mom's phone number. The camp was not aware Carter was missing until Kelly alerted them. 

"Can you tell me why I just received a phone call from a complete stranger stating that she found my son passed out?" Fraser said of the call. "And you guys didn’t even call me about it?" 

Camp officials said they understand where they went wrong and already are taking steps to avoid it happening to any other children. 

Recreation supervisor Marcus Francis says a miscount by one of the counselors led to the child's disappearance.

"Counting wasn't enough. We made an error in our logistics," Francis said. "We realize that we've got to do more, so were going to implement a roll call immediately."​

The counselors involved are still employed by the camp -- which Fraser does not agree with. 

"(If) the lady that found him hadn't found him, he might not be here today," Fraser said. "So they should be held responsible." 

Kelly said Carter is still shaken up but physically doing better.

Meanwhile, camp officials said all of its counselors will go through a week of training before camp begins.

They also said the camp complies with the Department of Children and Families' student-to-counselor ratio.