CALLY DIES 4 YEARS AFTER POOL DRAMA
BY JOHN JEFFAY A GIRL who pulled through against the odds after being found unconscious at the bottom of a Spanish swimming pool four years ago has died.
Cally Simpson suffered life-threatening injuries in the accident in Salou.
But she recovered enough to start nursery and school, although she was confined to a wheelchair, couldn’t speak and had to be fed through a tube.
Cally passed away at the weekend.
A crowdfunding page was set up by relatives to help her mum Kate Miller pay for the funeral.
Cally, from Arbroath, was aged four and on her first trip abroad when she almost drowned at a pool at the Villamarina Hotel.
A fellow holidaymaker pulled her out and she was given CPR at the scene but she remained in a coma.
After spending several weeks in hospital in Spain, Cally was flown to Scotland for treatment.
She spent a year at Edinburgh’s Sick Kids’ Hospital and then Ninewells in Dundee.
Cally had multiple operations following the accident. She was fitted with a pump in her stomach that released medication into her spine to help her move her limbs.
She was fed through a tube in her intestines.
Kate’s cousin Rachel Cameron set up a GoFundMe page to help with funeral expenses.
Yesterday, £2680 had been raised. The target was £2500.
Rachel said: “Kate has been a single mum and carer for Cally for the past four-and-a-half years – a woman only others could aspire to be, a mum in a million.”