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KEVIN GRAHAMBefore Keith A. Hayes Jr. could have surgery that might stop his seizures, one leads to his death.
TAMPA - Doctors gave Keith A. Hayes Jr. the good news just days ago, a friend said.
The 31-year-old man, who suffered from seizures that required medication and kept him from working, would soon have a brain operation that could make the problem go away.
But before doctors could set a surgery date, Hayes had another seizure, fell into a duck pond and died hours later, according to friend Scarlett Scott.
Authorities said Hayes fell into a pond at 6221 N Dale Mabry Highway about 3:45 p.m. Wednesday. Rescue crews took Hayes to University Community Hospital-Carrollwood. He died there at about 10 p.m., Hillsborough sheriff's deputies said.
To the children living at Hayes' apartment complex, he was a "big kid," a playmate and the Cookie Monster.
"He looked forward to seeing the kids every day, and that was the light of his life," said Scott, property manager at Flamingo West apartments, where Hayes lived with his parents. "It was nice having someone I could trust my daughter being around. He was just so nice, polite and helpful."
Scott's daughter, 7-year-old Amanda Catalan, was with Hayes when he had the seizure.
"She said she felt like it was her fault because she wanted to see the ducks," Scott said.
Before heading to the pond, Hayes, of 3726 W Idlewild Ave., chatted with Scott inside her office and then played in a pile of leaves with Amanda. Because of his seizures, Hayes didn't work, Scott said. She offered him odd jobs for pay at the apartment complex.
Hayes and Amanda headed to a nearby apartment complex, Cooper's Pond, and went through a hole in a fence to get to a duck pond there. Less than 10 minutes later, Amanda ran into her mother's office, screaming that Hayes had fallen into the water.
"I took off running behind her and my maintenance man followed," Scott said Thursday. They could see only a shoe in the water. The maintenance man got into the water and pulled Hayes out. He put him on the pond's bank while Scott performed CPR.
"We were there, it seemed like, forever," she said. "It was probably three to five minutes."
By then, a Hillsborough deputy arrived.
Scott said Hayes spent his days playing hopscotch and Jenga and drawing pictures on the sidewalks with children at Flamingo West. When the ice cream truck came, he bought the "good ones" candy treats and cookies, earning him the nickname Cookie Monster.
And Hayes adored baby ducks as much as Amanda did.
"She liked the baby ducks and so did he," Scott said. "We'd see them sometimes walking through the property, and he would always watch them. He'd talk about how cute they were, and it would always put a smile on his face."
- Times researcher Cathy Wos contributed to this report.