One mother is speaking out after her son died on Sacandaga Lake earlier this week. Terry Stackhouse spoke to the mother of 12-year-old Dominick La Fountain.
NORTHAMPTON, N.Y. -- The mother of Dominick La Fountain says she’s hardly slept since her son drowned Monday in Sacandaga Lake.
Time Warner Cable News spoke with Tabitha Potter at her home in Northampton Thursday morning. She's calling for changes to make sure no family experiences the same tragedy.
The 12-year-old was wading through shallow water in Sacandaga Lake at the Northampton Campgrounds in Mayfield when he slipped into a much deeper area.
“If I had known the water was so deep there, I wouldn’t have let him go in the water," said Potter.
About 100 people camping nearby jumped into the water looking for him.
“I couldn’t get to him quick enough to save him," said Potter.
Officials arrived shortly after, but dive teams needed to be called in from the Saratoga County Sheriff’s Office and the Corinth and South Glens Falls fire departments. It took them about 45 minutes to get there, and Dominick’s body was pulled from the lake about three hours later.
Potter says if divers had been in the water sooner, they would have had a better chance of saving her son. Fulton County had a dive team until about five years ago, when it was dissolved due to cutbacks. Now Potter is joining Fulton County Sheriff Richard Giardino’s call to bring back the dive team.
"If we had had that, it would've possibly changed the situation, but they didn't have it. They had to wait for other five teams from different areas to come here,” Potter said.
Potter says she had no idea there was such a drastic drop-off in the area Dominick drowned in. The Northampton Campgrounds in Mayfield are managed by the Department of Environmental Conservation. Potter says the DEC should put up signs marking the change in depth.
DEC has not yet responded to TWC News’ request for comment.
A family friend has set up a GoFundMe account to help the family with funeral expenses.
“He deserves to get sent off right, because he was such a special boy. He had such a big heart," said Potter.