Pool filter 'trapped my daughter by her hair', mum warns
- Published
A six-year-old British girl almost drowned when her hair was sucked into a swimming pool filter at a hotel in Lanzarote, her mother has said.
Darcey Morgan, from Leeds, fell unconscious when she was trapped underwater for more than two minutes.
Her mother Alex said fellow holidaymakers helped to pull her daughter to safety.
Travel company First Choice said it had launched a "full and thorough investigation" into the incident.
Mrs Morgan, 32, from Leeds, said the "terrifying" incident happened while she and her husband Gareth, 35, were on staying at the H10 Rubicon Palace, in Playa Blanca, Lanzarote, with their three children in April.
Her daughter was given CPR by the poolside before being rushed to hospital in Arrecife where she was kept overnight.
"It took over two minutes to get her hair free, by which time she was unconscious. She was blue," said Mrs Morgan.
"There are no words for what I was feeling. It's every parent's worst nightmare."
She said her daughter lost four clumps of hair but had made a full recovery.
She said she reported to the incident to the hotel but the management "did nothing".
"The swimming pool was not closed, the waterfall and the filter remained on," she said.
After the incident she said other people told her they had reported the filter to staff and said one boy had got his swimming trunks sucked in to the device two days earlier.
First Choice said it had received no other reports and said that the device had been switched off as soon as it was made aware of the incident.
Mrs Morgan, who highlighted the incident on Facebook, said she wanted to make people aware of the potential dangers.
The post has been shared more than 100,000 times and has attracted more than 11,000 comments.
"Myself and Gareth don't want any other parents or family members to go through what we experienced that day," she wrote.
"We will never get over what happened that day, but if this post can raise some awareness, save someone's life, then we will be happy."
A spokesperson for First Choice said it had taken "immediate action" to resolve the issue and had been in contact with Mrs Morgan to "update and reassure them on the steps we have taken".
They said: "We continue to ensure that the health and safety of all of our holidaymakers is our top priority."