A schoolboy is fighting for life after lying “dead” for 30 minutes following a swimming pool accident in Majorca.
Seven-year-old son Callum Wingate, from Belle Isle, Leeds, was given little chance of surviving after nearly drowning on the first day of a family getaway.
He was underwater for several minutes and had no pulse when he was pulled from the bottom of the pool at the Playa Blanca hotel, in the resort of S’illot, on July 29. It was half an hour before paramedics managed to revive him.
Callum, a Windmill Primary School pupil, has already defied doctors who told his parents he would die after being flown home.
But he is facing a long fight to regain any quality of life after being left with severe brain damage.
Mum Lorraine Siddle and dad Robert Wingate are keeping vigil at his bedside at Leeds General Infirmary.
Child minder Lorraine, 35, said: “It still seems like a nightmare and at some point I’m going to wake up. He’s an amazing kid – giving, generous, he doesn’t think of himself. He loves learning, he loves fishing. He loves life.
“I miss him. I know he’s here, but I miss his laugh, I miss his cuddles.”
Robert, 48, added: “He’s fighting. We have got to believe he can get better.”
The family flew to Majorca on July 28 for their first ever break together.
But tragedy struck at around 8am the following morning.
Callum, who only has basic swimming skills, had been playing in a shallow part of the pool. It is thought he slipped into the deeper water – more than 2m deep – while Lorraine was distracted.
She thought he had walked off with his older brother, Robert, 13, but was alerted several minutes later when his other brother James, 12, spotted Callum’s lifeless body at the bottom of the pool.
Dad Robert jumped in to pull him out, but he was not breathing.
“He was pure blue. He was dead,” Lorraine said.
Robert added: “You can’t describe what it’s like to see your bairn lying there dead.”
After being revived, Callum spent 12 days in a Spanish hospital before being flown home.
“They told us we were bringing him home to die,” Lorraine said. “As long as he’s alive, I know I can deal with whatever else is wrong with him.”
Callum, who is effectively comatose, has regular spasms and is likely to have suffered long-term brain damage.
Police are investigating the incident and Callum’s parents are pursuing legal action.