Man rescued ‘drowned’ woman, 6, in Tenerife tells of father’s terror

The man who helped rescue a girl from drowning in Tenerife has spoken of the father’s terror, as the hotel revealed the youngster is recovering well. 

Daniel Marsh was staying at the three star Granada Park Aparthotel in Los Cristianos last week with two friends when the nightmare incident occured.

The 21-year-old told MailOnline how the father had frozen up in complete shock and terror and started screaming: ‘My girl, my baby girl’.

When to Daniel’s horror they all saw the unnamed child was ‘on the floor of the pool in the corner with her face down.’ 

A spokesperson at Granada Park Aparthotel has confirmed that the child is ok, when asked about the incident, they responded: ‘Yes, yes, the girl is fine.’ 

Daniel Marsh (right) was at the Granada Park Aparthotel in Los Cristianos last week with two friends when the nightmare incident occured

The 21-year-old told MailOnline how the father had frozen up in complete shock and started screaming: ‘My girl, my baby girl’

Local reports have suggested that police are looking into why there was no lifeguard present at the pool.

Daniel said how he was there for a quick getaway with two of his friends, but things took a terrifying turn when they were all lounging by the pool on the evening of May 9. 

He said: ‘There was a family behind us on the sun loungers, a mum and I think an aunt. The girl was in the swimming pool playing around. And then I’d seen her get out the pool and take her inflatables off.

‘There was a block of showers in between the [sun] beds and the pool, so I couldn’t see where she was.

‘Obviously I wasn’t really paying that much attention.

‘And then the dad came over and said, have you seen my little girl? I said no.

‘Last time I [had] seen her she was in the swimming pool.

‘So he went, well, she’s not there. So I walked over and she was just on the floor of the pool in the corner with her face down.

‘[The dad] He just froze up a lot. He was obviously in shock and he just started screaming my girl, my baby girl!’

Daniel, seeing that the father had ‘frozen’ in utter disbelief at the sight of his daughter, immediately jumped in to get her. 

He said he hauled her out of the pool, and immediately started doind CPR on her, to try and resussertate her, before the hotel staff stepped in.   

The incident occurred on May 9 at around 6.50pm at the Granada Park Aparthotel pool in Los Cristianos (pictured), on the southwest coast of Tenerife

Which he truthfully said he was ‘grateful’ for as he ‘didn’t really know what he was doing’.  

He added: ‘People from the balconies [also] came running down and helped out.’

He confirmed he saw the girl again in the hotel the following night, she was ‘laughing and messing around, so I think she was fine.’

According to, Canarian Weekly, the girl was conscious and very scared when a nearby police unit arrived at the scene.  

Police said that ‘within moments’, two motorcyclists and two patrol vehicles arrived at the scene, along with a doctor and a first aider.

Ambulances then took the girl to a nearby medical centre.

There, she was diagnosed with aspiration pneumonia, which is caused by someone inhaling liquid into their respiratory tract of lungs.