Bali pool girl fights for life
Aussie tot airlifted home to hospital
A THREE-YEAR-OLD Sydney girl found unconscious in a Bali swimming pool was due to arrive back in Australia last night to receive urgent medical attention.
Kawa Sweeney was pulled from the water on Sunday morning and is believed to still be unconscious but is now in a stable condition. However, her terrified parents Dee Tang and Desmond Sweeney, from Newport, were advised to get her to Perth for doctors to treat her.
Christine Walsh, Ms Tang’s sister who described Kawa as a “happy little girl”, said that there was a surgeon near the villa pool where the youngster fell in and he performed CPR on Kawa, staying with her until an ambulance arrived.
“Basically she came out of the pool unconscious,” Ms Walsh said. “Dee had been chatting to a surgeon from Cottesloe in Perth — he was there and he resuscitated for 45 minutes. Apparently there was another nurse or doctor there as well.
“This doctor was with the ambulance and when they got to the hospital he was telling them what to do. The last update she was stable and her heart had got to a rhythm which was good.”
Ms Tang, who runs homewares store Kawaiian Love Shack on the northern beaches, and Mr Sweeney, an artist who has done work for pub baron Justin Hemmes, were in Bali on a working holiday with their two children, Kawa and Rafa.
Ms Walsh said the air ambulance company told the family it would cost $42,500 to charter the plane to Perth, where Ms Tang is originally from. The couple had thought they were covered by travel insurance through Ms Tang’s credit card but were soon proved to be wrong.
So in order to get their daughter back home the couple began a fundraising campaign on Instagram, raising some $70,000 in less than 24 hours.
Ms Walsh, a teacher, said that any extra cash once the flight plus Bali hospital fees have been paid will go to charity,
“It is so amazing. We are overwhelmed by gratitude. It could be anybody’s child. It’s really amazing,” she said.
“We’re really fortunate with her followers. I’m guessing most of it is from Instagram.”
Friend Natalia Feehan, who runs Arcade Vintage in Newport, has known the family for years.
“They’re such a lovely family, so kind,” Ms Feehan said.