Tourist's worrying claim after Sydney boy electrocuted at Fiji resort
Cairo Winitana, 8, died from electrocution in Fiji and another tourist says he also received a powerful shock last year at the same resort.
Allegations have surfaced that the electrocution death of a Sydney boy in Fiji wasn’t the first time a guest at the resort had received an electric shock.
It’s believed eight-year-old Cairo Winitana had been chasing frogs when he was struck by a live electrical current from a garden light at the Club Wyndham hotel on Denarau Island on Thursday night, The Daily Telegraph reported.
While the resort has described the child’s death as “tragic”, it’s since been revealed that in June last year an Aussie holidaymaker reported suffering an electric shock while on the property.
Sharing a photo of what he says is light fixtures along a path that had become wet in the rain, Nine News reported he was struck after touching one. He claims he alerted staff at the hotel but doesn’t know if the problem was fixed.
Bystanders perform CPR while mum screams for son
The tourists who found Cairo’s unresponsive body have since revealed the moment they discovered the eight-year-old unconscious and lying face down in a garden bed.
Thomas Meier, his uncle Juan Rodas and cousin Jeremy Rodas were walking back from the pool bar when they spotted the little boy with his “arms by his side” and a “big black mark” on his leg, The Daily Telegraph reported.
“My uncle grabbed him and pulled him out onto the footpath, and as he was doing that my uncle started getting (a shock), he kind of froze up,” Mr Meier told the publication, while Mr Rodas added that he felt a shock go through his hand.
While the uncle performed CPR, bystanders including a nurse began chest compressions before medical staff arrived with a defibrillator.
“Eventually the mum turned up and she was screaming, crying, calling out to her son Cairo,” Mr Meier said. “We were all just sitting around hoping this little boy is going to wake up after a couple of shots of this defibrillator.”
Mr Meier explained that emergency services arrived about 40 minutes after he found the boy, describing them as “pretty hopeless”.
Cairo was then taken to hospital in Nadi but pronounced dead by medics there.
A post-mortem has since confirmed that he died from electrocution, Nine News reported.
$40,000 raised to bring Cairo home
A GoFundMe page has since been set up to raise money to bring Cairo’s body back home, with family calling on support to help the eight-year-old’s parents navigate “this unimaginable nightmare”.
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In a heartbreaking Facebook post, the boy's mum Amber De Thierry said she loved her son from the moment she found out she was carrying him.
“[I] will love you forever more my beautiful, beautiful blue eyes,” she wrote online.
Yahoo News Australia has reached out to Club Wyndham for further comment.
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