‘Happy, healthy’ girl tragically drowned in hotel pool on first family holiday abroad

A “happy” girl who was “terrified” of water accidentally drowned in a hotel pool on her first family holiday abroad, an inquest has heard.

Francesca Blease, aged 11 and from Crewe, Cheshire, was pulled unresponsive from the children’s pool at the Club Jandia Princess Hotel in Fuerteventura, Spain, after a guest noticed her floating face down.

The youngster had been playing with other children for less than 10 minutes early in the afternoon of 7 August last year but it was not certain how long she had been submerged.

HM Senior Coroner for Cheshire Jacqueline Devonish said it “could not have been for very long”.

Two fellow holidaymakers, a midwife and an intensive care physiotherapist, stepped in to perform “appropriate” CPR on Francesca at the poolside before paramedics arrived.

Francesa was airlifted by helicopter to hospital in Las Palmas, Gran Canaria, where she died the following day after suffering severe brain hypoxia.

Cheshire Coroner’s Court heard Francesca could not swim and was not supervised, but Ms Devonish said that on the evidence heard there was not a foreseeable risk for a child of her age in a “very, very shallow pool” with a depth of between 10cm and 60cm.

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The coroner said: “There is no expectation that this could have occurred. There was no reason for her family to believe that she could have come to harm in the circumstances.”

Francesca showed no signs of prior distress, and even the other pool users did not suspect a problem, the inquest was told.

No evidence of trauma was found.

Ms Devonish said there was a suggestion the children in the pool had been playing a game of who could stay under the water for the longest, but that was “simply hearsay”.

Giving evidence, consultant anaesthetist Dr Patrick Morgan, an expert in drowning physiology, said one possibility was that Francesca – who had a “fear of water with no significant ability to swim” – lost her footing, then panicked and inhaled water.

Concluding her death was an accident, Ms Devonish said: “Unfortunately we do have an area of evidence where we cannot say for certain what caused Francesca to find herself in that position where she was face down in the pool.

“It is unfortunate that we have not been able to understand that.”

The coroner expressed her condolences to family members at the hearing in Warrington and to those not present, including Francesca’s mother Joanne.

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In a statement read to the court, Ms Blease said her daughter was a “smiley, happy, healthy baby, which is also the child she grew into”.

She went on: “She had lots of friends and was very well liked by her teachers. She was never without a smile on her face.”

Ms Blease said it was their first family abroad and they went to the pool area the day after they arrived.

Francesca was “terrified” of water, she said, and did not want to play in the adult pool at the resort so she was allowed to go to the shallow children’s pool.

She had gone to the reception area to inquire about holiday excursions while Francesca’s grandmother was sat on a sunlounger with Francesca’s younger sister, facing away from the smaller pool.

Ms Blease added that “a part of me died” on the day she lost her daughter.

She said: “I feel her absence always like a constant missing piece.

“Francesa would light up any room she was in. She never had down days and could see happiness in everything.”