A three-year-old child who nearly drowned in a hotel pool in Fujairah died on Thursday, two weeks after the incident.
The child, Salmeen Hadef Salem Al Ameri, was to be flown abroad for treatment after Shaikh Tahnoun Bin Mohammad Al Nahyan, the Ruler’s Representative in the Eastern Region, offered assistance to the family but he passed away in an Al Ain hospital where had been admitted in a critical condition, reports say.
Two housemaids employed by the toddler’s family had died trying to save him from drowning. The boy had slipped into the adult swimming pool at a hotel in Dibba, Fujairah. The boy’s mother who had left the pool for five minutes to bring food for her three children ran to the pool on hearing screams and gave her son cardio-pulmonary resuscitation by the pool after a female tourist pulled him out of the water.
Salmeen’s condition had remained critical after he was admitted to Tawam Hospital and doctors had indicated his chances of survival were slim.
According to the acting director of Dibba police, Major Abdullah Al Yamahi, tragedy struck when Salmeen jumped into a swimming pool meant for adults in the moments when his mother went to get food for the family. The two maids, an Ethiopian woman aged 25 and a 20-year-old Sri Lankan, hadn’t noticed the child venture near the pool. When one of the maids found Salmeen drowning, she jumped in to save him but started drowning herself. The second maid then jumped into the pool in another failed rescue attempt. [GN]
