10 Year Old Girl Drowns At South Pattaya Condominium Swimming Pool

[Rimmer]

10 year old girl drowns at South Pattaya Condominium Swimming Pool

PATTAYA: -- A 10 year old girl drowned at a swimming pool located at a South Pattaya Condominium Complex on Sunday. The girl and her friend had gone to the Swimming Pool, located on the Second floor of the Center Condotel, situated off the South Pattaya road on Sunday afternoon. The pair would often use the pool while they waited for their parents to finish work at the Chaimongkol Temple, located next to the condominium. On Sunday, the victim decided to venture into the deeper section of the pool and got into difficulties and eventually drowned.

Full story HERE

-- Pattaya One 2011-05-30

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[geovalin]

10 years is old to drown + usually the swimming pools in condos are not dangerous.

Well, drownings are frequent in Thailand.

In the swimming-pool I frequent (only 2 x 1 hour / week, it means I'm there 2 hours when it's open 70 hours a week = only 3% of the time), I managed to save one child and let another die.

I guess the boy I saved 8 years ago was 6 years old. He was under water, near the bottom. When I took him out, of course, he looked dead but the odd-job man of the pool brought him to the hospital by motorcycle as if he was a rice bag: on his shoulders, thus, the water flew from the boy's lungs and mouth. He stayed a couple of days in ICU and survived.

The girl was younger but she had long hair. She probably fell and one of her feet was still on the edge and the body was at the surface but face down. So, I saw a girl with very long hair at the surface of the water. I just thought it was a teenager who liked to play like that ("dam nam" in Thai), I did not think she had any problem, anyway, it was not my duty to watch the other bathers. Suddenly another child told me quietly (I was the only adult in the pool but 4 - 5 mothers was around + 10 adults was at the bar, amongst them, the mother of the dead girl) "This girl did not move since a long time". Alike 8 years before, I took the unconscious child out of the pool. Then the responsible people made what they had to do. I was so sure that the story would be the same than the previous time, I even was not worry. I was wrong. She was pronounced dead when arriving at the hospital.

Well, I swim 2 hours / week = 100 hours per year = 1500 hours in Bangkok. From my experience, a 10 years old child does not drown easily but younger, Oh My God! VERY VERY easily!

In both cases, the people in charge did not know any of the first aid techniques.

As I'm in the pool only 3% of the opening hours time, either I bring bad luck or it happens more often.

A detail that I wanted to omit but it's better to tell all. In the second case, the owner of the pool and the mother of the possibly dead girl had an argument, in the street, in front of the pool. The guy was so angry (upset?) that he throw the girl away in the gutter. She did not die from that but maybe during this time.