A British teenager was rushed to hospital in Spain after hitting his head on a water slide and losing consciousness. The 15-year-old is fighting for his life after colliding with a slide at Hidropark water park in Alcudia, Majorca. Civil Guard officers accompanied the ambulance to a local hospital to ensure the teenager was treated immediately. The Guard applied a “green alert,” meaning patrol officers stopped all traffic en route to the medical facility.
Witnesses reported the boy reaching the pool, already unconscious, and sinking to the bottom. When paramedics arrived, they pulled him from the pool and performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), restarting his pulse. He was later transferred to Son Espases, where he remains in critical condition.
Hidropark is one of Majorca’s most popular, with some of Europe’s highest and largest water slides. Accidents are relatively rare, with a total of 21 drownings recorded involving UK citizens throughout the whole of Spain in 2022. Nevertheless, numbers are increasing, and so far this year, nine people have drowned in the Balearic Island group, which includes Majorca.
In July, for instance, a four-year-old local boy, who was initially saved by paramedics and rushed to Son Espases Hospital, died the following day. Emergency services were alerted to a Sant Llorenç des Cardassar water park when the child was seen floating and apparently unconscious. First responders pulled the boy from the water and resuscitated him, but he ultimately lost his fight for life.
A month earlier, in June, there were two similar incidents and statistics for the first half of 2024 showed that drownings across Spain were up by 16% on the previous year.
In the United States, there are roughly a dozen water park fatalities every year. More broadly, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that water-related fatalities are increasing in America, reversing years of decline. Between 2020 and 2022, over 4,500 people drowned in the US, a jump of more than 500 compared to 2019. The CDC notes that children aged 1 to 4 and people over 65 are most vulnerable. Black people are also more likely to drown than whites. Additionally, figures show that over 40 million Americans do not know how to swim.
