Girl, 11, 'terrified of water' drowned in hotel pool

An 11-year-old girl who was "terrified" of water accidentally drowned in a "very, very shallow" hotel pool on her first family holiday abroad, an inquest has heard.

Francesca Blease, from Crewe, Cheshire, was pulled unresponsive from the children's pool at the Club Jandia Princess Hotel in Fuerteventura, after a guest noticed her floating face down.

The youngster had been playing with other children for less than 10 minutes on 7 August but it was unclear how long she had been submerged.

The 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, performed CPR at the poolside before paramedics arrived.

Francesca was airlifted by helicopter to hospital in Las Palmas, Gran Canaria, where she died the following day after suffering severe brain hypoxia - a lack of oxygen.

The hearing was told Francesca could not swim and was unsupervised, but the coroner 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 (4 inches) and 60cm (24 inches).

"There was no reason for her family to believe that she could have come to harm in the circumstances," she said.

Francesca showed no signs of prior distress, and other pool users did not suspect a problem, the inquest was told.

No evidence of trauma was found.

Devonish said there had been a suggestion the children in the pool had been playing a game of who could stay under the water for the longest, but that was "simply hearsay".

One possibility was that Francesca - who had a "fear of water with no significant ability to swim" - lost her footing, then panicked and inhaled water.

Concluding her death was an accident, Devonish said she could not say for certain what caused Francesca to find herself in a position where she was face down in the pool.

In a statement read to the court, Francesca's mother Joanne Blease said she 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."

Francesca was "terrified" of water, she said, and did not want to play in the adult pool at the resort so she was allowed to go to the shallow children's pool.

Her mum had gone to the hotel's reception area to inquire about excursions while Francesca's grandmother was sat on a sunlounger with Francesca's younger sister, facing away from the smaller pool.

"A part of me died," Blease said of the day she lost her daughter. "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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