Wednesday 28 January 2009
Girl, five, drowned in packed pool after slipping away from mother in changing room
By Daily Mail Reporter
Tragic: Harjeet Kaur Rathor died at hospital after getting into difficulty in a leisure centre swimming pool
A five-year-old girl drowned in a packed swimming pool after slipping away from her mother who was getting dressed in a changing room, an inquest heard. Harjeet Kaur Rathor had been taken by her mother Kalwant to a paddling pool because she could not swim. But once back in the changing rooms, she suddenly discovered the child had gone.
A statement read to the hearing said she searched the area as well as the shower and drier rooms before hearing an alarm sounding. It was very loud, like a fire alarm,' she said. Mrs Rathor saw a crowd of people outside the changing rooms at the side of the pool in Doncaster. 'I saw a lifeguard drag Harjeet's body from the pool,' she continued. Her daughter was being given mouth-to-mouth resuscitation and she was left 'shocked, scared and distraught'.
The inquest heard Harjeet, who lived with her family in Alwoodley, Leeds, was seen playing in the 1.2m-deep Treasure Pool at the Dome Leisure Centre just moments before she got into trouble. CCTV footage viewed by a ten-strong jury showed her perched on the side of a jacuzzi, playing on some airbeds and then splashing around with her uncle Rajinder Singh before he got out.
A short time later a woman swimmer could be seen pointing and shouting for a lifeguard. The child's motionless body was scooped from the water and taken to the poolside. But she could not be revived and died two hours later in Doncaster Royal Infirmary. The cause of death was given as drowning. Mrs Rathor had been at the Dome with her four children, her mother, who lives in Doncaster, and Harjeet's uncle and aunt and their one-year-old daughter.
The pool at the Dome Leisure Centre, in Doncaster (above) and exterior of the site (below). Lifeguards attempted to save Harjeet but were unable to resuscitate her
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