14-year-old boy dies after being pulled from school pool in Lansing

A 14-year-old boy died Friday after being found unresponsive in a pool days earlier at Thornton Fractional South in south suburban Lansing.

Emergency crews responded to the high school about 4:15 p.m. Wednesday and took Julian Urbina to Munster Community Hospital in Munster, Indiana, according to the Lansing police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office.

Urbina was later transferred to University of Chicago Medical Center, where he died Friday, authorities said.

An autopsy Monday found Urbina died of anoxic encephalopathy, or deprivation of oxygen to his brain, caused by a near-drowning, according to the medical examiner’s office. His death was ruled an accident.

He was a student at Thornton Fractional North and had been practicing with the swim team in the deep end of the pool when he went underwater, authorities said. Another swimmer pulled Urbina from the water and CPR was started prior to first responders arriving.

Police said the school is making grief counselors available to students.