A father and grandfather have both drowned after trying to rescue a toddler who had fallen into into a hotel pool on the Gold Coast.
Dharmvir Singh, 38, and Gurjinder Singh, 65, lost consciousness after jumping into the rooftop pool at the Top of the Mark Holiday Apartments in Surfers Paradise just before 7pm on Sunday.
They were pulled from the water by bystanders who performed CPR until emergency services arrived. However, the pair had gone into cardiac arrest and were tragically unable to be saved.
A two-year-old girl had been playing beside of the pool when she slipped off a step and fell in.
The girl’s mother, who couldn’t swim, jumped in after her daughter, prompting Dharmvir and Gurjinder to enter the water fully clothed in a bid to help.
A father and grandfather have died after jumping into a hotel pool on the Gold Coast to rescue a toddler who’d fallen in
Dharmvir Singh and Gurjinder Singh were discovered unconscious in the rooftop pool at the Top of the Mark Holiday Apartments in Surfers Paradise just before 7pm on Sunday
The two men got into trouble while in the water and drowned.
The child was rescued unharmed while her mother was taken to hospital in a stable condition.
It’s understood the family were visiting the Gold Coast from Victoria.
‘It’s an extremely emotional scene,’ Mitchell Ware from Queensland Ambulance Service said of the tragedy.
‘Obviously, anyone could understand that – not just to lose one family member but to lose two family members.’
The pool is on top of the apartment block, several stories above the street, and other families were using it at the time of the tragedy.
Mr Ware said tragic incidents like the double fatality on Sunday morning affected the entire community.
Dharmvir Singh (pictured) jumped into the pool to save his daughter alongside his father, Gurjinder Singh
The pool is on top of the apartment block, several stories above the street
‘These incidents can have long-lasting effects not just for the family members involved, but also the people that were at the scene as well,’ he said.
Mr Ware said it was unclear if flotation devices were available at the pool, adding water depth didn’t make much of a difference for those who are not strong swimmers.
A report will be prepared for the coroner.
Australia has been rocked by a spate of drownings in recent months, with more than 90 people killed between December 1 and February 29 this year.
Last month, a 13-year-old girl was left orphaned after her parents Leslie, 49, and Jon Ballo, 50, drowned while crabbing in Western Australia.
The couple, who are both Filipino, were recovered by police from the water near the Herron Point boat ramp in Birchmont.
Earlier in March, an international student was pulled from a waterfall in Queensland after going missing.
The 20-year-old went missing on March 10 at about 3pm after he leapt from a ledge into water at Crystal Cascades, west of Cairns, and failed to surface.
Leslie, 49, and Jon Ballo, 50, a Filipino couple who arrived in Perth nine years ago, died while crabbing last month
A search and rescue operation was launched by emergency services to find the young man.
Police divers from Brisbane aided in the search and located the young man’s body at about 6pm the next day.
It is understood the tourist was swept downstream after swimming at the top of a set of waterfalls – an area marked as a no-swim zone.
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