A HEARTBROKEN father told an inquest yesterday how he found his son floating in a swimming pool after he had left him for just two minutes.
John Brady had been holidaying with his wife and four sons in France when the accident happened.
His eight-year-old son, Jack Brady, from Solomon’s Court in Letterkenny, was a keen young sportsman who played rugby, soccer and Gaelic and had taken 30 swimming lessons, Letterkenny Coroner’s Court heard.
On the day of the accident last May the Brady family had been swimming in the indoor swimming pool at the Holiday Green mobile home park in Frejus on the Cote D’Azur. They had arrived at the camp just the previous day.
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.
When he returned two minutes later he could not find his eldest son.
He went around the centre looking for Jack. A minute later Dorothy, a midwife at Letterkenny General Hospital, spotted something floating in the water and screamed out her son’s name.
The boy’s father jumped into the swimming pool to try and save him.
When Jack was taken out he was given CPR and other medical assistance before being taken by air ambulance to a hospital in Marseille on May 5th. Doctors carried out various tests but after a few days it became known that the boy was not going to survive his ordeal.
Doctors at the hospital also told his parents that very little water had been found in his lungs and they suspected he may have suffered a cardiac arrhythmia or an undiagnosed heart condition.
The doctors also advised Jack’s parents to have their other sons tested for possible cardiac arr-hythmia.
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 the boy’s heart was suitable for donation.
Jack was flown by air ambulance to Derry and then transferred to Letterkenny General Hospital exactly a week after being found in the swimming pool. Jack died the following day after being visited by family and friends.
His mother and father 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.