Phuketwan UPDATE
The 12-year-old girl remained in a coma on Monday evening.
Original Report
A YOUNG GIRL was in a coma and fighting for her life tonight after a Valentine's Day drowning trauma came as a disturbing reminder that there are no lifeguards at any of Phuket's popular beaches.
The incident provided a dramatic flashback to the New Year's Day tragedy at the same beach, Nai Harn in Phuket's south, when a 10-year-old boy on a holiday picnic drowned and his eight-year-old companion narrowly escaped the same fate.
Today a German tourist found himself in the midst of a drama and applied heart massage in an effort to save Sirilak Klomsuk, aged 12. This evening her family was by her side at Vachira Hospital in Phuket City.
Doctors in the intensive care unit said Sisilak's condition was extremely serious and the odds were against her survival.
Recovering in another part of the hospital was Sirilak's 10-year-old sister Kanjana, who was also pulled from the water unconscious.
Elder sister Leelawadee, aged 16, managed to carry five-year-old Kanokporn to safety after all four sisters swam into difficulties at the southern end of the beach, the same end where the boy drowned on New Year's Day.
German tourist Juergen Wehrhahn, aged 50 and himself a father of five children aged seven to 19, was at Nai harn this afternoon and attempted to save Sirilak by applying heart massage and the kiss of life, otherwise known as cpr.
He told Phuketwan that the girl had been lost in the water for between five and eight minutes when he began cpr, which he applied for about 15 minutes until the ambulance arrived.
''I have a centre for rehabilitation about 50 kilometres from Hanover, so I have had to perform this technique five or six times in the past year, mostly for heart attacks,'' he said.
Mr Wehrhahn arrived on Tuesday to stay at a Patong Hotel and has been a regular visitor to Nai Harn since. He leaves next Sunday.
''I saw many people searching today and joined the search,'' he said. ''Then I saw three guys pull the girl up from the bottom. Whether she can be saved depends on how long she has been under.''
Regulars on the beach at Nai Harn are frustrated at the lack of a satisfactory year-round lifeguard system for Phuket's popular beaches. The island presents itself as a leading destination for beach holidays, yet frequently has no protection and an inadequate warning system.
While there is no guarantee that the presence of lifeguards would have saved young Sirilak, her chances of early rescue would have been considerably increased.
Water safety experts have questioned whether Phuket can ever hope to protect tourists and residents in the water with the present tendering system so clearly flawed.
In 2009, there were 53 drownings in Phuket waters. While some of these were not beach fatalities, when compared to the road death toll of 157, the number of drownings is shown to be clearly excessive.
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Phuket go back to sleep, you have proved once again, you don;t care for anybody, just money. I think that you are a very sick and backward island. May God rest your once loving and caring paradise.
Posted by Graham on February 15, 2010 05:42