In the most recent case of toddler drownings in Australia this summer, a little boy has tragically drowned in a backyard inflatable pool.
Two-year-old Alex Grove was pulled from the water of the backyard pool at his Gold Coast home on Tuesday afternoon and rushed to hospital. Though he was revived by medics at the scene, he later died in Lady Cilento Children’s Hospital after his life support was shut off on Wednesday morning.
He has been remembered by family members and friends as a ‘sweet little boy’.
One of his family friends, Ashlee Owen, who was known as ‘Auntie Ashlee’, told The Courier Mail that she had ‘lost her sidekick’.
“He was my best friend,” she said. “He wouldn’t go anywhere without me. We were pretty much attached at the hip.
“If I went to the letterbox, he had to come with me. He was my little sidekick.
“I don’t know what I will do without him now.”
Ms Owen also added that family members were traumatised after the events and that they were struggling to sleep. She said that his father Kieran Pye had died in 2015, and that Alex had missed him greatly.
“Even though he didn’t know his daddy very long he always told me how much he missed him,” she said.
“He would always do cute little things like throwing his dummy up in the air to heaven and asking his daddy to catch it.
“He had pictures of his daddy around his home and used to always say ‘goodnight daddy’ before he went to sleep.”
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has issued warnings to the public about the safety of inflatable pools 300mm deep or more following the incident. They have suggested that children are actively supervised by an adult at all times, and reminded consumers that fencing laws still apply to these pools.