Girl, 12, dies on holiday after arm sucked into pump at hotel swimming pool
A 12-year-old girl has died on her Turkish vacation after her arm was sucked into a holiday hotel swimming pool pumping device, trapping her underwater.
Alisa Adamova was stuck below the surface for almost 15 minutes as other tourists desperately tried to pull her free from drowning.
Guests say hotel staff at the popular resort did "nothing to help” and failed to immediately turn off the powerful pump “because they couldn’t find the switch”.
Eventually the Russian girl was yanked free with a piece of the pump – which supplied water to a pool slide – still attached to her arm.
Tourists then called an ambulance and gave Alisa mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.
Her heart was finally restarted by paramedics but she died 11 days after the horrific accident.
Russia is demanding that those responsible receive the “punishment they deserve” amid concern over pool safety in Turkey.
Alisa was described as a strong swimmer but her hand and arm was sucked into the pump after she came down the slide at four star Sunhill Hotel where "no lifeguard was on duty", according to tourists from many countries.
It took seven tourists including the girl’s father, Andris, to finally pull the girl free of the pump.
“We frantically called the hotel staff to switch off the pump, but none of the staff came to help”, Polish tourist Tomasz Grushalski said.
Alisa’s “right arm was stuck in the pipe, trapping her underwater”.
“It took ten minutes to switch the pump off and after that it was still impossible to get her out at first,” Grushalski said.
The girl’s mother, Natalya Adamova told Fontanka news agency the girl’s father dived in the pool “and saw our child underwater”.
“He tried to pull her out but her hand was very strongly sucked into the pump pipe,” she said.
“He called for help.
“Other guests rushed to assist. But even after hotel workers turned off the pump, they could not free her hand.
“Then he and seven other guests broke the pipe and pulled Alisa out along with a piece of pipe on her arm.”
Russian doctors flew to Turkey to help local medics try to save the girl.
Despite signs of improvement, her father announced that she had died.
“We know that life must go on but we will never be the same again,” he said thanking Turkish and Russian people for support.
Police are examining the incident and three senior staff at the hotel have been ordered not to leave the country.
A Russian diplomat urged the Turkish authorities to act.
“We hope that Turkish justice will establish the circle of persons guilty of this tragedy, and that they will bear punishment they deserve,” said a spokesman.
A father staying at the hotel said: "They must learn lessons from this terrible safety breach.”
"This pump was a death trap,” he said.
Grushalski advised tourists against going to this hotel because of the “incompetence” of staff who “tried to blame the mother”.
He said: “This trip will forever remain in our memory ... due to a tragic event caused by the incompetence of the hotel management.
“My eight-year-old daughter, who witnessed the event, still cannot cope with it.”
-Australscope
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