By Sarah Richards and Ella Proberts, ABC
Gurjinder (L) and Dharmvir Singh drowned in a Gold Coast hotel pool on Easter weekend. Photo: Supplied
The drowning of two men who jumped into a Gold Coast pool to save a toddler over Easter is both "extremely tragic" and "unusual", according to Royal Life Saving Society Queensland (RLSSQ) executive director Paul Barry.
The two-year-old girl was saved, but her father Dharmvir Singh, 38, and grandfather Gurjinder Singh, 65, got into trouble in the pool's deep end and couldn't be revived.
Royal Life Saving Society Australia said there was a "heightened risk" of drowning over Easter.
In the past two decades, 123 people have drowned in Australia over the long weekend.
But how could a double drowning have occurred?
"They would have would have jumped in instinctively to save and defend and look after their family members," Barry said.
How common are pool drownings?
In 2023, about 13 percent of drownings in Queensland were in swimming pools, according to RLSSQ's annual report.
Between 2012 and 2022, the organisation found 15 percent of pool drownings were in communal pools, such as hotels, resorts, and apartment pools, which were not patrolled by qualified lifesavers.
Barry says there are usually a few pool drownings every year in Queensland.
"This one is unusual with a dual drowning, that's not that common and is extremely tragic," he said.
Barry said people with a "low level of swimming ability" often underestimated the skill needed when "instinctively" jumping into the water to save a loved one.
"We see that on surf beaches when children get caught in rips that parents jump into the water," he said.
Sometimes a child would survive but a parent died instead, he said.
"It is a natural reaction for a parent to jump into the water to save a child."
Gold Coast police Superintendent Peter Miles said neither Dharmvir nor Gurjinder Singh could swim.
Whether "panic" and "adrenaline kicked in" for the men as they rushed into the water will be among the issues addressed in a coroner's report on their deaths.
What do you do if someone is drowning?
Sarah Hunstead, founding director of first aid training firm CPR Kids, said it was important not to panic.
"When the person that you love most in the world is in danger, your instinct is to absolutely get straight to them, but you need to make sure that you are safe," she said.
"If there is a risk that you can be hurt trying to rescue them, then it's really important that you get help."
Hunstead said that meant looking for any dangers before getting someone out of the pool and giving them CPR.
How are hotel pools regulated?
Barry said most hotels and resorts did a "really good job" in meeting pool fence legislation.
It was "pretty unusual" for them not to have a fence or signage, and many had rescue equipment, he said.
While the Gold Coast pool where the men drowned did not have a lifeguard on duty, Barry said it was not necessarily big enough to need one.
Miles said "from all accounts the pool is compliant" but its safety would be investigated by the coroner.
Does the depth of the pool matter?
It was possible for people to drown in water they can stand up in, particularly if they have "no swimming ability", Barry said.
"They don't have that instinct to rotate around or necessarily have the skills to rotate around and stand up," he said.
"Toddlers and youngsters can drown in water that's very shallow, even less than 300 millimetres."
Are children more likely to drown than adults?
Children and people over 40 were statistically the most likely to drown, Barry said.
"Essentially from birth through till about early teens - then we see another peak in drowning from about age 40 onwards."
He said it was mostly men who died among the older age group.
Royal Life Saving Society Australia's 2023 national report found 70 percent of people who drowned were men.
Barry said this was likely to be because men were "risk-takers".
"That's because us males, me included, would probably think like we're still 16 or 18," he said.
How do you give CPR?
Hunstead said the fundamentals of CPR were the same for babies, children and adults.
"We do 30 compressions to every two breaths. When compressing the chest, we press down a third the depth of the chest and at a rate of 100 to 120 compressions per minute," she said.
Hunstead said what changes is the amount of pressure applied to the chest compressions.
"For a little baby, we're going to use two fingers on their chest," she said.
"For a child, we will use one or two hands and for a grown up, we will use two hands."
Should you get CPR training?
Hunstead said CPR was a vital skill to help prevent drownings.
"Being able to act calmly and administer good, effective first aid in an emergency is so important," she said.
"If you are perhaps in a rural or remote area and there aren't face-to-face providers near you, you can do online training."
This story was first published by the ABC.
