A five-year-old British boy who was airlifted to hospital in a critical condition after a near-drowning in a Lanzarote pool has died. The youngster was admitted to a paediatric intensive care unit in Gran Canaria but has now lost his fight for life.
Rescue and resuscitation efforts
A doctor and a lifeguard began trying to resuscitate the boy after pulling him from the water on Thursday afternoon and discovering he had gone into cardiac arrest. Emergency responders continued CPR on arrival at the scene and managed to restore his pulse.
After he was stabilised, he was flown by air ambulance from Lanzarote to the neighbouring island of Gran Canaria and admitted to the Materno University Hospital in Las Palmas. It has now emerged that the youngster died there despite the efforts of medics to save him. It was not immediately clear when he had lost his fight for life.
Emergency response details
The alarm was raised just before 1pm local time on Thursday at an unnamed hotel in the Lanzarote resort of Playa Blanca, in the municipality of Yaiza. A spokesman for a regional government-run emergency response coordination centre said: "At 12.46pm on Thursday, the Canary Islands Government's Emergency and Security Coordinating Centre received an alert reporting that a minor had been pulled out of a hotel swimming pool showing signs of drowning and in cardiorespiratory arrest, and that the establishment's lifeguard, a doctor and other people who were at the scene were performing resuscitation manoeuvres on the child."
Local police were mobilised along with the Canary Islands Emergency Service and the Lanzarote Consortium for Security, Emergencies, Rescue and Prevention. An advanced life support ambulance, another basic life support ambulance and an air ambulance were also sent.
"Upon arrival at the scene of the incident, the medical personnel assessed and treated the affected person, a five-year-old minor, who remained in cardiorespiratory arrest, and continued performing advanced resuscitation manoeuvres that succeeded in restoring his pulse," the spokesman added. "Once he was stabilized, the youngster was transported in critical condition by medical helicopter, which landed next to the hotel and took him to the Materno Infantil University Hospital in the Gran Canarian capital Las Palmas."
Local police worked with firefighters to secure the landing and take-off manoeuvres of the medicalised helicopter.
