JURONG GIRL, 6, DROWNS IN SENTOSA HOTEL POOL. HEARTBROKEN DAD SAYS:
It was her first time in pooI

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IT was little Anna Lim's first trip to Sentosa. And when her family decided to move from the beach to the Rasa Sentosa swimming pool, she couldn't contain her excitement.

t would be the six-year-old's first time in a pool. Sadly, it also turned out to be her last after she drowned on Saturday.

Now her grieving father is left with only questions and regret.

Questions of how she could have drowned unnoticed in a pool teeming with people and watched over by two lifeguards.

Regret that he could not find her in time after she had run ahead while they were walking to the pool. Regret that he could not find the time to teach her how to swim.

Mr Andrew Lim tried to stay strong for his family since the tragedy. He was a picture of composure yesterday, a contrast from his wife, Madam Lona, who had been weeping non-stop, unable to come to terms with Anna's death.

But when he saw his daughter's body at the wake for the first time yesterday at 6.30pm, he broke down.


Bent over her coffin, he whispered something to her body. He later told The New Paper what he had said: 'I'm sorry I didn't save you in time.'

It has been almost two days of confusion and heartache for the family from Jurong East.

Anna, who is 1.2m tall, was found in the shallower end of the hotel's adult pool (1.3m deep) on Saturday just after 5pm.

Questions remain unanswered for the family.

How did she end up in the pool?

Didn't anybody see her struggling?

Why didn't someone help her then?

There were two lifeguards on duty then, but they did not see her.

At the wake yesterday, Mr Lim, 40, recounted the incident to The New Paper.

He said his sister had booked a room at the hotel over the weekend.

On Friday, Anna spent the day at the hotel with Mr Lim's father-in-law, sister and her family.

The adults even took the children to play by the beach.


ENJOYED HERSELF


It was Anna's first visit to Sentosa.

'She enjoyed herself so much and insisted on going back again on Saturday,' said Mr Lim, a full-time tutor.

He gave in and took his wife and daughter to the hotel at about 4pm.

While Mr Lim was walking from the beach towards the swimming pool with his wife, his sister and his sister's two children, Anna ran ahead of them.

'She ran about 10m ahead. When we couldn't see her, we started calling out for her,' recalled Mr Lim.

'I don't think she would have heard us because it was so noisy.'

Mr Lim said the pool area was crowded with guests.

After searching frantically in the crowd for her, Mr Lim said they decided to see if she had gone up to the room.

When they didn't find her there, they went back down to the pool.

But his heart sank when he approached the area.

Said Mr Lim: 'I saw a group of people around her. From what she was wearing, I knew immediately that it was her.'

Anna was wearing a bright blue swimsuit borrowed from one of her cousins, as she didn't have one of herown.

He said several guests and the hotel's lifeguards tried to resuscitate her, but failed.

'They administered CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation), but they couldn't revive her,' he said.

Recalling those moments of chaos, Mr Lim said he called out to Anna, but she did not respond.

'I knew she was already gone. She didn't have a pulse, her lips were blue and her fingers had turned pale. But I couldn't bring myself to tell my wife then,' said Mr Lim.

He said one of the guests who had helped out, later told him that a lot of water had been pumped out of her.

Mr Lim said Anna did not know how to swim. And it was her first time in a swimming pool.

Shaking his head, Mr Lim said: 'Till now, I'm not sure how she got in. Did she jump in? Did she fall in? I don't know.

'There were so many people there. Somebody should have seen her.'

He said Anna seldom ran off too far so he didn't know what prompted her to do so on Saturday.

Yesterday, the swimming pool was teeming with hotel guests.

Guests who had been there on Saturday said that those helping Anna had tried really hard to save her.

Said a guest, who declined to give her name: 'One woman kept pumping and pumping the girl's chest until the ambulance came.

'During those crucial minutes, it just seemed (to take) forever for help to arrive.'

Another guest said it had been very crowded that day and it would have been hard for the lifeguards to observe everything.

It seems that most guests only realised that an accident had occurred when people started gathering around Anna.

The police said they received a call at 5.20pm on Saturday informing them that a girl had been found unresponsive in the swimming pool.

She was taken to Singapore General Hospital unconscious and pronounced dead at 7.20pm. The police are investigating the death.

Mr Lim, who also has a 3-year-old son, said that Anna was an active girl whom her kindergarten teachers described as the 'dajie' or big sister who took care of her classmates.




PRIMARY ONE ITEMS BURIED
She had been looking forward to starting Primary One next year and had convinced her parents to buy her school bag and pencil box in advance, said Mr Lim.

Those items, together with some of her favourite clothes and soft toys, will be buried with her.

'She told me that she's scared of pain, so we will bury her,' said Mr Lim. Her funeral is today.

Mr Lim has only one regret.

Anna had asked him to take her for swimming classes, but Mr Lim never found the chance to.

His voice trailing, Mr Lim said: 'She kept wanting to go for swimming classes...but I just didn't have the time to (take her).'

Labels: Drown