I feared my girl sleep drowning’

WHEN schoolgirl Rose Tinman went on an outdoor adventure course, she had never heard of drowning in your sleep.

Luckily for 16-year-old Rose, her mum Jo had.

Weak swimmer Rose had to be pulled from a deep natural pool after overcoming her fears to jump from a ledge beside a 20ft Welsh waterfall.

Rose said: “I’m not a very sporty person but the trip included a load of activities.

“My friend and I thought it would be a laugh. We all lined up but when it got to my turn I panicked and froze.

“Everyone was laughing and egging me on. I felt if I didn’t jump someone would push me anyway – so I jumped.”

Rose disappeared under the water, and when she did not resurface at once a group leader dived under to pull her out.

But hours later Rose nearly succumbed to “secondary drowning” where fluid left in the lungs can cause the person to die long after the crisis looked past.

Her mum Jo, at home in Barnstaple, Devon, was told of the incident in a phone call.

She said: “I had a call from one of the organisers saying Rose had had an accident but that it wasn’t anything serious.

“When she told me Rose had been in a near-drowning incident my heart nearly stopped.

“The girl told me Rose had fallen into a shallow pond but my blood still ran cold.

“I’m a first aider and I know about secondary drowning and how someone can ‘drown’ even when they’re out of the water.”

Jo, 53, insisted on medical help being sought, even though the organisers assured her Rose was fine and there was no need.

Rose said: “When t he paramedic examined me, he was really concerned. He called an ambulance straight away and I was rushed into hospital.”

At the Prince Charles Hospital in Merthyr Tydfil, South Wales, Rose was checked by a doctor and her lungs X-rayed.

The doctor said it was hard to tell if the lungs had been affected by residual water – so Rose was kept in overnight.

Later that evening she called her mum as she started to feel sick, weak and dizzy.

Jo said: “Once I heard Rose was experiencing those symptoms I panicked.

Inhaled

“The things she was describing are often the symptoms of secondary drowning.”

Secondary drowning – also known as delayed drowning – hit the headlines in June when fouryear-old Frankie Delgado died SIX DAYS after he inhaled water while swimming.

Frankie had been knocked over in knee-deep water near his home in Texas, US. Water was found in his lungs after his death.

Rose was allowed home by doctors the morning after when her symptoms subsided.

But it was another week before she felt her lungs had cleared.

Jo said: “I was checking her every five minutes for a week after she came home.

“I was so worried she might drown in her sleep.”