British mom, 56, is killed when earthquake causes ‘freak wave’ that smashed her in opposition to rocks whereas swimming in Tenerife

A British mother died while holidaying in Tenerife when a ‘freak wave’ knocked her into rocks on her morning swim.

Chantelle Buck-Forrest says her 56-year-old mother Rose Buck went for a swim on the morning of Wednesday February 25 while on holiday in Costa Adeje, Tenerife.

The 39-year-old says her mother was a ‘strong swimmer’ and went down to the beach after discovering the pool was closed.

The ‘blue lagoon’ is reportedly usually calm but after Rose swam close to the rocks a small earthquake occurred, creating a ‘freak wave’.

Mother-of-two Chantelle says the wave ‘flung her mum against the rocks’, knocking Rose unconscious and breaking her C2 vertebra before someone on the beach noticed and alerted the lifeguards.

Rose was reportedly underwater for five minutes and it was another 13 minutes before people managed to resuscitate her.

After her family rushed to be by her side, doctors decided to turn off her ventilator on March 6, saying that there was too much brain damage for her to recover.

Chantelle Buck-Forrest says her 56-year-old mother Rose Buck (pictured) went for a swim on the morning of Wednesday February 25 while on holiday in Costa Adeje, Tenerife

The 39-year-old says her mother was a ‘strong swimmer’ and went down to the beach after discovering the pool was closed. Pictured: Rose in hospital after the incident

Rose was reportedly underwater for five minutes and it was another 13 minutes before people managed to resuscitate her. Pictured: Rose swimming in the sea before she died 

Rose, who was a postal worker, passed away in hospital in Tenerife on Sunday March 8.

Tenerife was hit a 4.1 magnitude earthquake on the February 25, which Chantelle believes was likely what caused the ‘freak wave’.

Chantelle, who lives in Bradford, West Yorkshire, said: ‘I’m absolutely devastated, I couldn’t stop crying.

‘It’s been horrendous. I’ve been walking around feeling like I’ve been shot in the chest.

‘She was visiting Tenerife and she’s a really strong swimmer, swimming is actually her sanctuary.

‘She went down for a swim in the morning but the pool was closed so she went to what she calls her ‘blue lagoon’.

‘It’s a place in the sea which is usually really calm and all kinds of people swim in it, young and old because it’s quite protected from the rest of the sea’s waves.

‘She was a really strong swimmer and she was swimming the perimeter of the lagoon and it was just one freak wave that’s taken her.

‘There was reported an earthquake a couple of hours after what happened so I am guessing this earthquake has caused this freak wave and it just flung her against the rocks.

‘She’s suffered a really serious head injury which broke her C2 upon impact and she will have gone unconscious straight away and she was just taken by the sea.

‘She was under for about five minutes and then it took 13 minutes for them to resuscitate her, someone had notified the medical services and then they came and rushed her to the hospital in the North of the island.’

Due to Rose originally being on a ventilator, it meant doctors were at first unable to perform the scans to see the extent of the damage to her brain.

It meant that after Chantelle and her partner Fran Wilde, 63, and her 26-year-old son Owen Tate rushed over to Tenerife to be at her side, they spent days not knowing what would happen to Rose.

Chantelle said: ‘First they were trying to stabilise her and her internal organs because she had swallowed and had a lot of water in her lungs and stomach and they couldn’t stabilise her because she was suffering from hypothermia.

‘After five days they stopped all medication for the hypothermia and they managed to stabilise the internal organs but she has suffered quite a lack of oxygen to the brain so they were then worried about the brain damage.

‘But then they saw a bleed on her brain stem.’

Chantelle says that whilst what has happened to her mother is a tragedy, the response from people have brought her comfort and she has set up a GoFundMe to help the family.

Chantelle, who is a children’s playcentre director, said: ‘Everybody who has contacted me has said she is either one of the nicest people they know or the nicest person they’ve ever met.

‘The amount of people far and wide, people who I didn’t even know knew her, it’s been mind blowing, she’s touched so many people’s lives.

‘When we were sat having breakfast, my brother was just sat scrolling on Instagram, and he just said ‘oh my gosh it’s International Women’s Day today, so she died on International Women’s Day which felt like homage to her.

‘Although I feel like I’ve got this massive loss and I’m holding so much sorrow, I feel the same amount of love and support and honour in the other hand.

‘The amount of people that have contacted me has opened my eyes to what a woman my mum is and I feel honoured to be her daughter.’