Heartbroken mum's warning after two children drown in viral swimming pool game

One family’s summer vacation turned into a nightmare within minutes as 11-year-old London Marie and her 14-year-old brother Wadale drowned in their hotel pool while playing a viral swimming game. Their mum Brittney McWhite, who has four other children, had briefly left the pair to play in the pool unattended while she arranged food for a BBQ as they knew how to swim.

Explaining the devastating tragedy to FOX 29, the grieving mum said she found them “at the bottom of the pool” when she returned a few minutes later. The siblings had been playing a modified version of Marco Polo in the pool that involved them holding their breath underwater.

London and Wadale were quickly pulled from the water and received medical treatment but tragically died after the incident, with Brittney sending an urgent message to parents as summer holidays roll around. She warned: “Always have a set of eyes. Prevent your kids from playing games and make sure the pool is safe. If it doesn't look right, don't do it because once you lose your child, it is hard."

The siblings were placed on life support machines for a week in hopes of their recovery but over the weekend it became clear to Brittney and the children’s father that they weren’t going to improve. Brittney emotionally added on Sunday: “Keeping my child hooked onto a machine for the rest of their life is not ideally what any parent should want for their children, so today I and dad decided to end life support."

The “devastated” mum felt a bit more at ease knowing her children are “at peace”, noting that they were total opposites but simply couldn’t live without one another. The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents notes that children can drown in as little as 5 centimetres of water, meaning even a shallow garden pond of paddling pool can be dangerous for unattended children.

They advised families heading for poolside or beach holidays to check the safety arrangements in advance in terms of lifeguards and fencing and urged them to teach their children not just how to swim but also instill in them that they should never swim alone.