A 19-month-old baby died on Thursday, 13th August in Alicante hospital following a drowning incident on Wednesday in a swimming pool located in the Torremendo district of Orihuela.
The tragic event took place at around 11:00 am in a private pool in the Entrenaranjos development, situated between Torremendo in Orihuela and Los Montesinos. For reasons that have not been disclosed, the infant was discovered by his parents in the pool, where he had remained at the bottom for approximately ten minutes. They retrieved him and carried out basic resuscitation manoeuvres.
Emergency medical services were immediately alerted and performed advanced cardiopulmonary resuscitation. After around 25 minutes, they successfully recovered the child’s pulse. Following this initial care, the minor was quickly moved to the emergency department of the Torrevieja University Hospital before being transferred shortly afterwards to the Paediatric ICU at the General Doctor Balmis Hospital in Alicante.
The Guardia Civil dispatched a patrol from San Miguel de Salinas to the scene, though they did not intervene as the baby had already been evacuated by health services.
Entrenaranjos is a large housing development featuring thousands of occupied homes and a golf course in the Las Asomadas area, experiencing high occupancy at this time of year due to residential tourism. Although administratively linked to Orihuela and the Torremendo area, it is located by road about 9 kilometres from Los Montesinos and roughly 20 kilometres from Torrevieja.
A total of 91 people died in Spanish aquatic environments during July alone, according to figures from the National Drowning Report produced by the Royal Spanish Rescue and Lifesaving Federation. With these records, the cumulative total between 1 January and 31 July reaches 308 deaths. July stands as the month with the second-highest number of fatalities in 2026, trailing only June, which recorded 92 cases. Since the start of the bathing season on 15 June, Spain has been experiencing one of its highest period incidences in aquatic spaces, coinciding with increased activity at beaches, pools, rivers, and other water venues.
