Children learn swimming at a pool in HCM City. VNS Photo Thu Hang

Last Sunday, seven-year-old T.Đ.C of Binh Tan District was brought to the emergency department at the Children Hospital No 1 following first aid at the site of his drowning.

But doctors could not save him.

His family said he had run down to the apartment pool without telling anyone at home and was found in the water.

Three weeks earlier a three-year-old girl from Tan Phu District was brought to the hospital also rescued after drowning. She died not long after reaching the hospital.

She had fallen into a large water container at home.

The Children’s Hospital No 2 received four drowning victims in the first two weeks of this month, Le Thanh Tuyen, head of its respiratory department, said.

The four suffered acute respiratory failure when they were hospitalised, but fortunately all of them were saved, she said.

Dinh Tan Phuong, head of the hospital’s emergency department, said accidental drowning of children is not uncommon in Vietnam and spikes in summer when children stay at home due to the school break.

Drowning mainly happens due to inability to swim or falling into rivers and canals in rural areas.

Children in cities go to public swimming pools or apartment pools at weekends, and parents should keep an eye on their children instead of depending on life pool guards, doctors said.

Swimming lessons and water survival skills training could help reduce drowning accidents, they added.  VNS

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