These Swimming Pool Deaths in Fuengirola ...

[SheilaNaGig]

And in the spring, we had to pick daffodils by the hundreds and sell them in the street to the public to make money.

 

[ice-is-forming]

She was famous far beyond her school duties. I think she became the standing head after I left (and after the headmaster and his wife had a fairly spectacular dual nervous breakdown that eventuated in a suicide pact that only led to the death of one of them).

This is intreaging but not the thread for it

 

[Rebelda]

Mate...


When we had to do cross country (which I hated), I'd either hide in the dungeons or the mausoleum.

That's literally true.

Fucking hell

 

[kittyP]

She was famous far beyond her school duties. I think she became the standing head after I left (and after the headmaster and his wife had a fairly spectacular dual nervous breakdown that eventuated in a suicide pact that only led to the death of one of them).

Bloody hell

 

[8ball]

Ahh gotcha. So given in an emergency rather than a 'planned potential' in a cardiac lab. What rhythm do you go into? VT? /nosey

Bit of fib, bit of flutter, bit of VT and the occasional bit of 17-part jazz fusion.



Not needed a zap for a while now - got a nice fancy CRT-P a few years back.
Christmas present from the NHS.

 

[ice-is-forming]

Still SheilaNaGig I hope you've never had to save someone from drowning!

 

[Rebelda]

Bit of fib, bit of flutter, bit of VT and the occasional bit of 17-part jazz fusion.

View attachment 194370

Not needed a zap for a while now - got a nice fancy CRT-P a few years back.
Christmas present from the NHS.

Those 3 lead bad girls are so bloody cool

 

[SheilaNaGig]

Still SheilaNaGig I hope you've never had to save someone from drowning!

I have done. And I've used my CPR and resus training away from water too.

And I've punched a few men and kneed a couple in the goolies too.

However, these events have always been entirely mutually exclusive.

No Venn diagram here at all.

But I have to say, this woman's ... courage? lack of parameters? probably had a direct effect on me feeling permitted to use physical force to extricate myself from tricky situations while I was still in my teens.

 

[8ball]

Those 3 lead bad girls are so bloody cool

Got myself a nice Latina Syncra keeping the beat.
The EP cheated a bit by sticking all 3 leads down the same vein (I'm guessing from the installation manual that the guarantee is now void) but I'm anti-coagulated for a mech AV so no biggie.

 

[pseudonarcissus]

And Christ knows what happened there in Spain

Bearing in mind the gentleman’s profession Christ might have had a hand in it. The Pastor’s good lady’s faith appears not to have been shaken, which I guess is admirable.

how deep was the pool? most hotels have ones that are about 4’.

 

[8ball]

We've strayed off course a little on this thread, but yeah - can only take something quite small to lead somewhere tragic.

 

[Cid]

To get back on topic a bit... This confused me too, but Sheila saying this:

This makes me wonder if the water level was too low. If they couldn’t reach up to the edge to hold on, if they were exhausted from struggling, finding themselves stuck against the side of the pool without the strength or breath to swim to the steps or the other end, leap to reach the edge or to cry out for help. I can see that leading to death.

And looking at the few pictures of the specific pool:

Not been in a pool for ages, but remember most of the ones I used regularly (North London) having those gully things you could hold onto around surface level. Can easily see how a kid could get into trouble without that... And it's not too hard to see the other two getting into trouble trying to rescue without proper training.

There's a lot that went wrong there though... A pool that's 'safe' enough to not have a lifeguard, or any form of observation seems like a massive stretch. Especially in a family holiday resort. I mean 'there's nothing wrong with the pool' and 'they got out of their depths and drowned' are to me somewhat mutually exclusive statements. A pool isn't just a physical body of water, it's a system that needs various levels of safety considering its intended users.

 

[Proper Tidy]

Loads of hotel pools are unattended.

I did a week in Tenerife in February a couple of years ago (my last holiday), package deal, all inclusive, family hotel, not our usual sort of thing but thought it would be good with a young one. Loads of pools, only the main one had a lifeguard and only then at peak times. My night time routine was to have tea together then put daughter to bed about eight, before we would take it in turns to go up to bar and get drinks and get quietly pissed as fuck on balcony of room, then later I would go for a pissed swim. Which is lovely but probably not very safe. I'd be only one in there, obviously cos it was 1am or whatever, but they were never closed off and I never got told off.

 

[Bahnhof Strasse]

Not sure I have ever been at a hotel pool that did have a lifeguard.

Whilst working as a lifeguard I did save a fairly large number of people, far more than had I worked at a pool, for another thread really, but beyond madness some of the fucking parents I dealt with.

I have never beaten anyone unconscious though, either professionally or on an amateur basis

But did used to hide on my cross country runs, in the bushes on Wandsworth Common, smoking fags until enough time had passed to slink back in to school, out of breath, too many fags...

 

[Giles]

We own a similarly sized pool in our place in Spain.

It's a pool that originally was made for a smallish holiday complex for 50+ people, so bigger than what you'd typically have for the 4 apartments that now share it, and it looks fairly similar to the one in this tragic case.

I can state that the power of the pump that keeps the water moving through the filters, is nowhere near strong enough to cause a person to be in any way "sucked in" / "sucked underwater" / trapped, or whatever. It really isn't.

Whatever happened here, I do not believe that any of them were somehow "sucked down" underwater by the pool machinery. And in fact, the Guardia Civil have already confirmed this. Why would anyone make pool machines that could do this, when there is absolutely no need to do so, anyway?

 

[Cloo]

I've seen a lot of FB replies to news stories on this going 'People who can swim do not die like that, there must have been a cover up!' but from what I've heard that's exactly how people die when trying to rescue someone in difficulty - panicked, drowing person grabs the rescuer and pulls them down. Multiple drownings notoriously happen when someone goes to rescue someone in trouble.

Advice I've been given is to pull yourself away from a flailing person if they are pulling you down because you won't get out unless you seriously know what you are doing

I've been grabbed at by a slightly panicking child in water where I can't quite stand up and that was pretty scary (I am not a strong swimmer) - two panicking kids in deep water? Sadly, entirely possible from what I've heard.

 

[LDC]

Just sounds like the surviving parent is in denial and coming up with nonsense rather than facing the reality (maybe understandably). Bollocks that some thing sucked them into the middle or bottom.

It's actually really pretty easy to drown in a pool that's not even that deep. Some panicking of the father, trying to help kids that are panicking, inhaling water, slipping, maybe having had a drink, it all escalates and ends in disaster pretty quick.

 

[LDC]

Nope. Excessive chest hair can exacerbate transthoracic impedence, basically the body resisting or failing to fully conduct an electric current. Sometimes an AED will say 'pad fail' if the connection isn't good enough. The priority must always be delivering a shock, if appropriate, asap though. A less than adequate shock quickly is better than not

Less about the hair itself messing with the shock, more about the fact that the IED pad won't have a proper connection if there's hair that stops it sticking and having a good contact with the skin.

E2A, Know you're a nurse, was more an answer to others on the hairy chest issue.

 

[SheilaNaGig]

I've seen a lot of FB replies to news stories on this going 'People who can swim do not die like that, there must have been a cover up!' but from what I've heard that's exactly how people die when trying to rescue someone in difficulty - panicked, drowing person grabs the rescuer and pulls them down. Multiple drownings notoriously happen when someone goes to rescue someone in trouble.

Advice I've been given is to pull yourself away from a flailing person if they are pulling you down because you won't get out unless you seriously know what you are doing

I've been grabbed at by a slightly panicking child in water where I can't quite stand up and that was pretty scary (I am not a strong swimmer) - two panicking kids in deep water? Sadly, entirely possible from what I've heard.

I'm going to say this again, because this post proves that it's worth repeating.

Drowning people will try to climb up on top of their rescuer. This will push you under. They are not dragging you down, they are trying to climb on top of you, they are trying to drag themselves out of the water onto whatever they can, and if you're the nearest thing, they'll try to climb up you and onto you. They are pushing you down. Their efforts are pushing you under. They are pushing you under, because they're trying to climb on top of you. Don't try to pull away or push them away, it won't work. Struggling against that will cause you to panic (you won't be able to push against the ground) and your panic can kill you.

You're right, Cloo, that rescuers often drown too, because once the rescuer is in trouble, now two people are trying to clamber upwards, often pushing each other down under the water in their panic.


If you're trying to rescue a drowning person and they're grabbing you, don't pull away (they'll hang on harder) go down. Go under. Take a large lungful of air if you can, or simply hold your breath. Be still as you can. Their flailing will mean that they won't be holding onto you consistently. Wait if you need to, break their grip with force if you need to (hit them in the side of the head if you need to). Bring your arms and hands in towards your body. make yourself small. Sink down beneath the drowning person and kick away, swim away from them.

Try to use your voice to get their attention once you're free of them. Don't try to reason with them while they have you in their grip, they'll push you under and now you too have gulped in water.


If they're beyond reason, approach from behind so they can't see you to catch hold of. Be firm, be strong, be certain in your movements. Don't worry about hurting them.


But the main thing here is that if a drowning person grabs hold of you, go down, not up or away. Go down. Escape them by ducking under their attempts
to clamber upwards.


(sorry to go on about this but)

 

[DJWrongspeed]

This story reminded me of the extraordinary scene in the film Under the Skin. On a beach with high seas a dog, husband & wife die in succession leaving a baby on the beach.

 

[nogojones]

I'm going to say this again, because this post proves that it's worth repeating.

Drowning people will try to climb up on top of their rescuer. This will push you under. They are not dragging you down, they are trying to climb on top of you, they are trying to drag themselves out of the water onto whatever they can, and if you're the nearest thing, they'll try to climb up you and onto you. They are pushing you down. Their efforts are pushing you under. They are pushing you under, because they're trying to climb on top of you. Don't try to pull away or push them away, it won't work. Struggling against that will cause you to panic (you won't be able to push against the ground) and your panic can kill you.

You're right, Cloo, that rescuers often drown too, because once the rescuer is in trouble, now two people are trying to clamber upwards, often pushing each other down under the water in their panic.


If you're trying to rescue a drowning person and they're grabbing you, don't pull away (they'll hang on harder) go down. Go under. Take a large lungful of air if you can, or simply hold your breath. Be still as you can. Their flailing will mean that they won't be holding onto you consistently. Wait if you need to, break their grip with force if you need to (hit them in the side of the head if you need to). Bring your arms and hands in towards your body. make yourself small. Sink down beneath the drowning person and kick away, swim away from them.

Try to use your voice to get their attention once you're free of them. Don't try to reason with them while they have you in their grip, they'll push you under and now you too have gulped in water.


If they're beyond reason, approach from behind so they can't see you to catch hold of. Be firm, be strong, be certain in your movements. Don't worry about hurting them.


But the main thing here is that if a drowning person grabs hold of you, go down, not up or away. Go down. Escape them by ducking under their attempts
to clamber upwards.


(sorry to go on about this but)

Nah, not having any of that liberal tosh.
Now I know I can use physical force, I'm looking forward to the next person who jumps in the pool without waterwings, so I can dive in and twat them (then resuce them of course)

 

[skyscraper101]

I'm troubled by this swim cap in the filter. Is it possible the first person got their hair caught in the suction somehow, and the others tried to rescue them unsuccessfully and got overwhelmed.

I saw an episode of this on 999 back in the 90s. They had to give mouth to mouth with some girl while underwater, until her hair could be severed with a knife.

 

[Sasaferrato]

A small sample, certainly, but every hotel pool I've been in, I've been able to stand with my head and shoulders out of the water. I'm 5' 10".

Does anyone know how deep the pool was?

 

[weltweit]

.. Does anyone know how deep the pool was?

No, but I assume if the three had been able to stand there might not have been a problem.

 

[MickiQ]

It's clear from the pictures of him that the Pastor was a chap of a studdly build and probably could have stood up.
But if I was watching my children dying in front of me I wouldn't be thinking or acting rationally either.
I have immense sympathy for the mother, she has lost her husband and two children in an apparently meaningless accident and is obviously finding it hard to come to terms with grief and wants to believe there is more to it than just a random accident, but that doesn't mean it is anything other than that.

 

[Bahnhof Strasse]

Nah, not having any of that liberal tosh.
Now I know I can use physical force I'm looking forward to the next person who jumps in the pool without waterwings so I can dive in and twat them (then resuce them of course)

Need to issue some pre-emptive twattings on people walking down the street. Can’t be too careful when it comes to life guarding

 

[Saul Goodman]

I remember rescuing a rubber brick in my pyjamas.

What a strange place to keep a rubber brick

 

[planetgeli]

What a strange place to keep a rubber brick

I assumed rubber brick was a euphemism.

 

[Saul Goodman]

I assumed rubber brick was a euphemism.

Or Cockney rhyming slang.