How Hero Dad Saved Drowning Daughter’s Life With A Kiss

Dad, Ian Thomas, 39, has shared the terrifying moment he discovered his four year old daughter floating face down at the bottom of a swimming pool and his battle to save her.

According to Mirror UK, the pair had just had a swim in the family pool – which is in an outhouse some 10 metres from the main house. Jacinta had a buoyancy vest on as she was unable to swim unaided. The pair were walking back to the house together when Mr Thomas got a call on his mobile. Distracted for a moment, he walked on and answered the call, assuming Jacinta had followed.

The rest of the family – his partner, stay-at-home mother Angela Thomas, 40 and four other children Lochlan, 16, Candice, 14, Malachi, 12, and Lakinzi, seven months – were already inside.

Ian continued: “Jacinta was just doing her thing, then she got out of the pool, dried off and we were going indoors together when I got the call. That’s where the confusion started. I just thought she’d gone on in but soon realised she was nowhere to be seen and rushed outside. I couldn’t see her so I rushed into the outhouse, over to the pool, looked into the window and still couldn’t see her. I ran inside, looked into the pool and then I saw her. She was face down at the bottom of the pool. I dropped everything, dived in and dragged her out. But I knew it wasn’t good, she was unconscious, and her lips were turning blue. She wasn’t wearing her life jacket, and had obviously got into trouble and been unable to get out by herself.”

Screaming as he ran towards the house, Ian carried his limp daughter across the garden and banged on the windows before laying her out on the ground.

He said: “Angela came out, saw Jacinta and started screaming. She was in quite a state. We called the ambulance but I knew I had to resuscitate her. You could tell looking at her she was on death’s door. Maybe it’s all the hospital dramas on TV, but I just knew what to do. You pull it out of the bag, you find an inner strength. She didn’t gasp and spring back to life with a smile like they do in films, but she did start to come round, and giving her the kiss of life gave us another five minutes’ grace before the ambulance arrived.

An air ambulance arrived but Jacinta was still extremely ill and they couldn’t put canulas in her arms, which are needed to be able to travel by air, so she was taken to the local William Harvey Hospital in Ashford by land ambulance.”

Jacinta spent a week in hospital in the high dependency ward, but she survived the horrific incident.

Her guilt-ridden father said the whole thing was a roller coaster, and that he felt responsible for the accident – even though he was the one who saved her life.

He said: “I blame myself and feel so guilty. We knew having a pool we had to be so vigilant with the kids, but this still happened. We keep an even closer eye on the kids now than before the accident.

Jacinta is back to her bubbly self and, the pool is now under lock and key.