A HEARTBROKEN dad found his young son floating in a swimming pool after he left him for just two minutes.
John Brady had been holidaying with his wife and four sons in France when the accident happened.
Little Jack Brady, 8, had only arrived at the Holiday Green mobile home park in Frejus on the Cote D’Azur the day before the tragedy in May of this year.
Jack, from Solomon’s Court in Letterkenny, was a keen young sportsman who played rugby, soccer and gaelic.
He had also taken 30 swimming lessons at the Aura Leisure Centre.
Letterkenny Coroner’s court was told that on the day of the accident the Brady family had been at the indoor swimming pool at the holiday park.
Jack’s mother Dorothy had been with his three brothers Kyle, Ethan and Mark in a smaller play area while Jack had been with his dad John at the steps of the main swimming pool.
Dr.Brady, a psychiatrist based in Derry, decided to visit the jacuzzi area of the pool but when he returned two minutes later he could not find his eldest son.
He looked around and eventually went around the centre looking for Jack.
A minute later mum Dorothy, a midwife at Letterkenny General Hospital, spotted something floating in the water and screamed out Jack’s name as dad John jumped into the swimming pool to try and save Jack.
When he was taken out he was given CPR and other medical assitance before being rushed by air ambulance to a hospital in Marseille on May 5th.
Doctors carried out various tests on Jack but after a few days it became known that he was not going to survive his ordeal.
Doctors at the hospital also told the boy’s parents that very little water had been found in his lungs and they suspected he may have suffered a cardia arrhythmia or an undiagnosed heart condition.
The doctors also advised Jack’s parents to have their other sons tested for possible cardiac arryhythmia.
When it became clear that Jack, a pupil at Ballyraine National School, was not going to recover, his parents requested he be flown back to Ireland to die.
Doctors at the Marseille hospital also suggested that the boy’s heart was not suitable for donation.
Jack was flown by air ambulance to Derry and then transferred on to Letterkenny General Hospital exactly a week after being found in the swimming pool.
The following day, after being visited by family and friends, little Jack passed away. His family also allowed for a number of his organs to be donated for transplant.
His mum and dad described their blue-eyed child as just an ordinary boy who loved to play on the green outside his home with the other boys.
The jury reached a unanimous verdict and found Jack Brady died as a result of cardiac arrhythmia.
Coroner John Cannon said the death of an infant was always a very tragic one.
But he said it was particularly trying for the Brady family to relive their son’s death coming up to Christmas.
The jury also commended the Brady family for trying to save Jack’s life.
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