Francesca Blease was airlifted to hospital but could not be saved
A coroner’s court sign(Image: Alamy/PA)
A schoolgirl ‘terrified’ of water drowned in a ‘very shallow’ hotel pool on her first family holiday abroad, an inquest heard.
Francesca Blease was unresponsive when she was pulled from the children’s pool at the Club Jandia Princess Hotel in Fuerteventura in the Canary Islands.
A guest at the hotel noticed her floating face down.
Francesca had been playing with other children for less than ten minutes on the afternoon of August 7 last year.
But an inquest heard it was not clear how long the 11-year-old had been submerged.
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Senior coroner for Cheshire Jacqueline Devonish said it ‘could not have been for very long’.
Two fellow holidaymakers, a midwife and an intensive care physiotherapist, stepped in to perform CPR on Francesca at the poolside before paramedics arrived.
Francesca, from Crewe, Cheshire, was airlifted to hospital in Las Palmas, Gran Canaria.
But she died the following day after suffering severe brain hypoxia.
Cheshire Coroner’s Court heard Francesca, who was not supervised, had a ‘fear of water with no significant ability to swim’.
But Ms Devonish said 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.”
Francesca showed no signs of prior distress and even other pool users did not suspect a problem, the inquest heard. No evidence of trauma was found.
There was a suggestion children in the pool had been playing a game of who could stay under the water the longest but Ms Devonish said that was ‘simply hearsay’.
Consultant anaesthetist Dr Patrick Morgan, an expert in drowning physiology, 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 we have not been able to understand that.”
In a statement read to the court, Francesca’s mother Joanne said her daughter was a ‘smiley, happy, healthy baby, which is also the child she grew into’.
She added: “She had lots of friends and was very well-liked by her teachers.
“She was never without a smile on her face.”
Ms Blease said it was their first family abroad and they went to the pool area the day after they arrived.
Francesca was ‘terrified’ of water and did not want to play in the adult pool so she was allowed to go to the shallow children’s pool, the mum said.
Ms Blease said she had gone to the reception area to ask about holiday excursions while Francesca’s grandmother was sat on a sunlounger with Francesca’s younger sister, facing away from the smaller pool.
Ms Blease told how ‘a part of her died’ on the day she lost her daughter.
She said: “I feel her absence always like a constant missing piece. Francesca would light up any room she was in. She never had down days and could see happiness in everything.”
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