He got his arm stuck in the pool filter
A four-year-old boy had to be rescued after he got his arm sucked into the filter of a hotel swimming pool in Mallorca.
The British boy had been at Hotel Zafiro in Can Picafort on Sunday (1 June) when he got his hand stuck in the swimming pool’s water filter.
The suction created a vacuum and trapped the boy’s arm, to the point that the emergency services could only free him by digging out the pipe.
Local news outlet Diario de Mallorca reports that rescuers had to be extremely careful not to harm the child as they dug out the pipe his arm was stuck in.
As the emergency services worked to free him they gave the boy his own hard hat and earmuffs, and fortunately he does not seem to have been seriously injured by the ordeal.
The pipe had to be dug out of the pool so the boy’s arm could be freed (Bombers de Mallorca)
According to the Mail, the pool filter was not covered which resulted in the four-year-old becoming sucked in and trapped, and the pool had to be drained of water after they realised they couldn’t start getting him out of there without clearing the pool first.
Once they got digging they managed to get to the pipe and free the boy in about 30 minutes, after which he was taken to hospital to be examined and it was determined that he hadn’t been too badly hurt.
The pool was drained to dig out the pipe and free the boy’s arm (Bombers de Mallorca)
They add that a court is now looking into whether the Mallorca hotel could get in trouble for negligence, while a hotel spokesperson told them the boy’s family ‘expressed their gratitude to us for the quick response of the entire team’.
Other hotels and holidaymakers have experienced tragedy due to pool filters before.
Last year a young girl staying at a hotel in Texas with her family died after being sucked into one of the pipes.
The boy wasn’t seriously hurt after responders dug him out of the pool (Bombers de Mallorca)
The eight-year-old child had been swimming in the pool and it took 13 hours to reach her, at which point she was found to have died of ‘drowning and mechanical asphyxia.
The pool’s filter appeared to be part of the problem as one pipe was supposed to be sucking water out and another pumping it back in but they both seemed to be draining the pool.
The boy was taken to hospital and checked over, fortunately he’s not seriously injured (Bombers de Mallorca)
Thankfully in this latest case the boy was rescued and checked over in hospital only a little worse for wear.
Hopefully they let him keep the hard hat and earmuffs, as those are the sort of things a four-year-old would probably enjoy getting as a souvenir.
