PLETTENBERG BAY – A five-year-old boy drowned in the Beacon Island Hotel swimming pool in Plettenberg Bay on Saturday evening, the National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI) said.
NSRI spokesman Craig Lambinon said children had noticed an object underwater in the pool and on closer inspection realised that a child was lying at the bottom of the pool.
“The children rescued the child to the pool’s edge where adult bystanders, the parents of the children who had recovered the body from the pool, initiated CPR.
“NSRI medical crew, who carry full advanced life support medical kits in their vehicles, were on the scene in minutes and an ER trauma nurse (emergency room trauma nurse) from Mediclinic, off-duty but at home nearby and who is also on the NSRI emergency activation group, also responded to the scene. Medlife ambulance services were activated,” Lambinon said.
TheNSRI medics and the ER trauma nurse took over CPR from the bystanders and were assisted by a doctor who was at the hotel at the time.
With CPR efforts continuing, the child was transported to hospital, where doctors continued with CPR, but sadly he was eventually declared dead.
Police have opened an inquest docket.
Lambinon said trauma counsellors were attending to the child’s mother, believed to be an employee of the hotel, and her daughter who was at the pool at the time.
NSRI and emergency services conveyed condolences. The children who pulled the child from underwater and the bystanders, their parents who initiated CPR, were commended for their actions, Lambinon said.
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