Top brain surgeon’s son dead in pool after party at £3.5m home
Cambridge student Dominic Hamlyn, 24, is believed to have suffered a heart attack after a birthday party for his younger brother in the early hours of Sunday.
His surgeon father Peter yesterday paid a moving tribute to his ‘hero’ son – and revealed he had personally tried to revive him after he inexplicably sank to the bottom of the outdoor pool.
He described the amateur rugby player as a ‘superb athlete’ and a ‘beautiful boy’ who had delivered an unscripted 15-minute speech at his brother’s 21st birthday party just before he died.
Mr Hamlyn said in a statement: ‘There is no mystery, there were no drugs. He was swimming in his swimming trunks, almost sober. He had just spoken for 15 minutes without notes. He completed two lengths and then sank to the bottom.
‘It was his youngest brother’s 21st and, shortly after giving a brilliant speech about him, Dominic went swimming with friends. He was immediately pulled from the water and a medical student started performing CPR until I came a minute later to take over.’
Mr Hamlyn said an ambulance had arrived quickly at the mansion in the hamlet of Crundale, Kent, and Dominic was stabilised and taken to hospital.
He addeed: ‘Two consultants worked on him throughout the night. A specialist team came from St Thomas to put him on a bypass. He died last night despite all their efforts.’
Mr Hamlyn, a world-famous brain surgeon who saved the life of boxer Michael Watson in 1991 when he developed a nearfatal blood clot on his brain after a bout with Chris Eubank, added: ‘There will be an inquest but he clearly had a heart attack – a brain scan ruled out a haemorrhage. Their brilliance at resuscitation is our only comfort. Why did he die?
‘He was a superb athlete competing in both rugby and rowing at Cambridge.’ Referring to the case of Fab rice Muamba, the Bolton Wanderers footballer who collapsed on the pitch from a cardiac arrest during an FA Cup game in 2012, he said: ‘It is called sudden death in athletes or sometimes sudden athlete death – SAD.
‘It is a rare, often fatal, carsyndrome. What the footballer had and survived. Not our beautiful, beautiful boy. We are broken. If he is to be remembered it is as a hero and one of the world’s helpers.’ Dominic, who was studying for a business masters at Cambridge University, had returned to the eight-bedroom family home near Canterbury for the summer holiday.
He received a first-class honours degree in science and engineering from University College London, where he was in the rugby first XV.
He was the university sports officer while also finding time to learn fluent Spanish and run his own online retail business.
In 2014 Dominic ran the London Marathon for charity, raising £5,700 in sponsorship for a brain and spine charity founded by his father. In an online fundraising page he told how he had been inspired by his father’s work to want to help others.
He wrote: ‘When I was a young boy I helped my father fundraising. He and his patient, the injured boxer Michael Watson, along with his carer Lenny, walked the London Marathon for the Brain & Spine Foundation. ‘It took them six days and I swore when I was old enough I would run it – in the words of Michael, “for the benefit of others less fortunate than me”.’
The coroner in Canterbury said an inquest would be opened and adjourned in the near future.
A spokesman for University College London said: ‘We are deeply shocked and saddened to learn of the death of a muchloved and talented member of our alumni community.’
‘He was one of the world’s helpers’