Boy, 2, Who Fell Into Hot Tub Dies

A 2-year-old Laguna Niguel boy found submerged in a backyard hot tub earlier this week died Thursday morning, officials said.

Michael Bertoloti died at Children’s Hospital at Mission in Mission Viejo at 11:30 a.m., hospital officials said. An autopsy is scheduled for today.

The toddler, who was at his uncle’s home on Hampton Drive in Laguna Niguel when the accident happened, was discovered by his mother, Linda Bertoloti, at the bottom of the family’s hot tub, said Lt. Tom Garner, Orange County Sheriff’s spokesman.

Police believe the toddler opened a sliding glass door and wandered into the backyard, where he fell into the hot tub, Garner said.

The child’s death was Orange County’s second water-related fatality this week. On Monday, a 13-year-old girl from Daly City failed to regain consciousness after she was pulled from a swimming pool at the Anaheim Plaza Hotel.

Last year in Orange County, five children under the age of 5 died from drowning, authorities said.