Toddler Hagen Johnson loved to watch the waterfall visible from his grandfather's back yard.
But on Saturday, the 2-year-old apparently wandered unsupervised to the creek winding behind Ronald Johnson's home, 2122 Evergreen Ave. (3435 South).Playing with his 3-year-old cousin, the boy fell into the swollen creek and was swept about a half block downstream into a pool created by debris. Hagen was found about 10 minutes later and transported by medical helicopter to Primary Children's Medical Center, said Salt Lake County Sheriff's Lt. Andy Burton.
Hagen was in very critical condition late Saturday, the hospital reported.
"We always cautioned (children) not to go there alone in the spring when the creek is high," said 63-year-old Ronald Johnson who, with another man, gave the child a blessing as deputies attempted to revive Hagen. "I was so frightened."
The Johnsons had been hosting a yard sale in their front yard Saturday morning. Several residents were coming and going, and family members were working to keep the sale moving.
The boy had been in the front with the rest of the family but apparently wandered off.
"It was a prime situation for some temporary inattention," the grandfather said.
About 10:05 a.m., the Salt Lake County Sheriff's Office was notified the boy might have fallen in the creek, Burton said.
There were no adult eyewitnesses, but a shoe was found near the stream. A bridge connects neighboring homes, where other relatives live, Johnson said.
Hagen's father, Eric Johnson, jumped into the water to help a half-dozen deputy sheriffs search for his son.
Ronald Johnson believed the boy would most likely be caught in a debris-created pool, where an irrigation ditch once was. He handed his wallet to a sheriff's deputy so that he could join the search, too.
"They wouldn't let me," he said, his voice cracking.
Minutes later, the grandfather spotted what appeared to be an arm just below the pool's murky surface.
Eric Johnson went to the spot and pulled his son from the waters. He lay Hagen on the bank, pleading with him to respond. Deputies attempted to revive the boy as a medical helicopter landed in a nearby intersection. Fire officials also responded, and several neighbors gathered round.
Ronald Johnson said some 13 children had grown up near the creek, and this was the first incident of its kind there.