Countywide

Two separate pool accidents ended in the drowning death of an Escondido toddler and the hospitalization of a Santee boy, authorities said Wednesday.

Maxwell Gaffy, 2, of the 1900 block of Sunset Drive in Escondido, died at 2:10 p.m. Tuesday in the emergency room at Palomar Medical Center, county medical examiner Charles Kelley said. Suzanne Gaffy had found her son floating face down in a neighbor’s pool about an hour earlier, Kelley said.

Maxwell slipped out of his house unnoticed by his mother, who thought he was playing with his 7-year-old brother in another room, Kelley said. Apparently the toddler climbed a 5-foot chain link fence that enclosed the neighbor’s pool area and jumped or fell in the water, he said.

In Santee, 3-year-old Tanner Stebel was found Tuesday by his mother floating face down in the family swimming pool in the 10000 block of Holborn Court. The child remained at Children’s Hospital Wednesday in critical condition on a life-support system, said Mark Morelli, a hospital spokesman.

Tanner’s was the 14th near-drowning in the county since January, Morelli said.