“Girls being girls, they love being mermaids and she was swimming to the bottom of the floor”.

A family day in the sun in 2016 turned into a nightmare for Dubai Mum, Orla Carbery who saved her daughter Aoife’s life after she got stuck in a pool drain. A young life was nearly lost in moments due to a lack of pool safety. Aoife’s arm got caught in the suction from a drain that can weigh over a tonne. The drain vacuum sucked with incredible force and pulled her arm through.

Aoife was trapped for 3 minutes underwater

She was unconscious and suffered a cardiac arrest. Luckily Aoife’s mum Orla could perform CPR for ‘what seemed like an eternity’, which ultimately saved her daughter’s life.

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A Terrifying Near-Drowning Experience Was The Start Of ‘Aoife’s Campaign’ – Full clip: https://t.co/foNTVglqOg#water #safety #dubai pic.twitter.com/3do8sAZkF7

— Lovin Dubai | لوڤن دبي (@lovindubai) May 11, 2022

Orla is channelling her energy into an important water safety awareness campaign

Aoife was critical in ICU for three days but made a full recovery. Now, Orla is channelling her energy to prevent more tragedies.

‘Aoife’s Campaign aims to reduce statistics of fatal and non-fatal drownings, create a culture of water safety, improve accessibility of information and support across all socioeconomic groups and promote water safety workshops to nurseries, schools, community groups, sports clubs, and companies.’

There’s now a Water Safety Book available in @spinneysuae throughout the UAE (available in both English and Arabic) along with preparing workshops for schools and businesses.

Can you help?

*If you would like to support or partner with Aoife’s Campaign, you can learn more about it here

 

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A post shared by Orla (@aoifescampaign)

Water safety facts

It takes 20 seconds for a child to drown, 60 seconds for an adult

Drowning is silent and fast

Drowning does not discriminate against age, religion, ethnicity, social status

Drowning is 100% preventable

WHO Statistics:

Drowning is 3rd leading cause of unintentional injury death worldwide ;

(2019) an estimated 236,000 people lost their lives to drowning

Highest drowning rates globally:

-children aged 1-4
-males
-individuals with increased access to water