A two-year-old girl who tragically died on Saturday afternoon in the Los Lagos de Taurito water park, in Mogán (Gran Canaria), may have lost her life due to choking on a piece of bread, rather than from drowning as initially believed.
This is according to a trained emergency responder who witnessed the incident and shared a detailed account in an emergency services chat group.
The expert explained that the child had been eating while at one of the water attractions in the pool area. As she got up to go for a swim, she reportedly slipped and ended up sitting on the edge of the pool, on a ramp made of floatation mats. It was at this moment, he says, that the girl began to choke on a piece of bread.
He also noted that, tragically, the child went unnoticed for a brief but critical moment. “None of us realised what was happening to her,” he admitted, highlighting the difficulty of detecting signs of distress in such a setting.
The incident occurred shortly after 4:00p.m. and initial reports from the Canary Islands’ Emergency Services Coordination Centre (CECOES) had described the case as a possible drowning, stating that the child had been pulled from the pool showing symptoms of asphyxiation.
Emergency services, including paramedics from the Canary Islands Emergency Service (SUC), quickly arrived at the scene and found the girl in cardiac arrest. They immediately began basic and advanced resuscitation efforts.
Firefighters from the Gran Canaria Emergency Consortium assisted by securing a landing zone for a medical helicopter, which arrived at the site and landed on a roundabout approximately 200 metres from the scene, according to the witness.
The young girl was reportedly on holiday with her grandmother and uncle at the time of the incident. Her parents were in another country.
The investigation into the exact cause of death remains open, but the expert’s testimony adds a crucial perspective, suggesting that the tragedy may have resulted from a fatal choking incident rather than a typical pool-related drowning.
