A BRITISH schoolgirl who was “terrified” of water tragically drowned in a hotel pool on her first family holiday abroad, an inquest heard.
Francesca Blease, 11, from Crewe, Cheshire, was pulled unresponsive from the children’s pool at the Club Jandia Princess Hotel in Fuerteventura.
The youngster had been playing with other children in the pool for less than 10 minutes early in the afternoon of August 7 when tragedy struck.
It remains unclear how long she was submerged in the water with other swimmers not “suspecting a problem.”
HM Senior Coroner for Cheshire Jacqueline Devonish said the 11-year-old could not have been underwater for “very long.”
Two holidaymakers, a midwife and an intensive care physiotherapist, stepped in to perform CPR on Francesca after she was pulled from the water.
When paramedics arrived at the scene Francesca was airlifted by helicopter to hospital in Las Palmas, Gran Canaria.
She tragically died the following day after suffering severe brain hypoxia.
Cheshire Coroner’s Court heard Francesca could not swim and was not supervised.
Ms Devonish said that on the evidence heard there was not a foreseeable risk for a child of her age in a “very, very shallow pool” with a depth of between 10cm and 60cm.
The coroner said: “There is no expectation that this could have occurred. There was no reason for her family to believe that she could have come to harm in the circumstances.”
The tragic 11-year-old showed no signs of prior distress and the other pool users did not suspect a problem, the inquest was told.
Ms Devonish said there was a suggestion the children in the pool had been playing a game of who could stay under the water for the longest.
The coroner suggested that was “simply hearsay.”
An expert on drowning physiology, Dr Patrick Morgan, told the inquest one possibility was that Francesca lost her footing, then panicked and inhaled water.
Concluding her death was an accident, Ms Devonish said: “Unfortunately we do have an area of evidence where we cannot say for certain what caused Francesca to find herself in that position where she was face down in the pool.
“It is unfortunate that we have not been able to understand that.”
The coroner expressed her condolences to family members at the hearing in Warrington and to those not present.
In a statement read to the court, Joanne Blease, Francesca’s mother, said her daughter was a “smiley, happy, healthy baby, which is also the child she grew into.”
She went on: “She had lots of friends and was very well liked by her teachers. She was never without a smile on her face.”
Ms Blease added that “a part of me died” on the day she lost her daughter.
