A three-year-old British girl is fighting for her life in hospital after her parents found her “floating face-down” in the pool of their holiday villa in Pollensa, northern Mallorca. The alarm was raised around 8pm yesterday, and the child was admitted to Son Espases Hospital in Palma with a very weak pulse. Her condition had not improved overnight, local media reported. Her mother and father leapt into the water after discovering her and began trying to save her before local police arrived and took over. Emergency responders revived her with CPR before she was rushed to hospital.
The incident was the fourth of its kind involving a British family in just over a week. On June 15, a one-year-old British toddler died after being found floating in a hotel pool in Lajares, Fuerteventura. The child suffered “irreversible neurological damage” and later passed away in the paediatric intensive care unit of the Materno Infantil University Hospital on Gran Canaria. Sebastian Quintana, president of maritime safety organisation Canarias 1500 Km de Costa, said: “With deep sorrow, we send our condolences to his parents and the entire family.” He urged parents to “constantly watch over little children and get into the water with them.” On Saturday, a four-year-old British girl drowned in a hotel pool in Playa Blanca, Lanzarote, despite attempts to revive her. And last Wednesday, a three-year-old British boy died after falling into a pool at a holiday home.
“A three-year-old British girl is critical after being found face-down in a Mallorca pool, as parents are jailed for neglect in a separate death.”
In a separate tragedy, a judge in upstate New York jailed the parents of a three-year-old girl who died after months of neglect in a filth-filled home. Matthew Dylewski, 34, and Samantha Dylewski, 33, admitted criminally negligent homicide over the death of their daughter Joycelynn Ann Dylewski in Corinth on February 19, 2025. Investigators found bugs on her face and scalp, a cockroach fell from her hat when removed, and her teeth were “rotten and black”. Authorities said she developed anaemia from an untreated lice infestation, which damaged her heart and other organs. She had also been given clonidine, a medication for high blood pressure. The combination led to her death. The family’s apartment was so overwhelmed with rubbish that it was later condemned.
Each parent was sentenced to one and one-third to four years by Saratoga County Judge James Davis. Addressing Joycelynn’s father, Judge Davis said: “You failed as a parent. Your entire job was to keep her safe. She was a three year-old, and you failed in the most horrific way. This was completely preventable, and it’s unconscionable.” Matthew Dylewski told the court he thinks about his daughter constantly: “I wish it would be that I died instead of my daughter.” Samantha Dylewski said: “As their mother, it’s my duty to protect them from harm, and I failed.”