First Drowning of the Bathing Season in Alicante: A 65-Year-Old Man in a Community Pool

First drowning fatality of the 2025 bathing season in the province of Alicante. With just a month since beaches and pools opened their lifeguard services for the summer, Alicante has already recorded its first incident, which in this case has been fatal.

Health sources have confirmed the death of a 65-year-old man this Wednesday morning, drowned in a community pool in the municipality of San Miguel de Salinas. The Emergency Information and Coordination Centre (CICU) received the alert around 12:40 pm and dispatched medical personnel to the scene.

Specifically, an ambulance from the Emergency Medical Assistance Service (SAMU) was mobilised, whose medical team could only certify the death of this man.

The only case reported this year was that of a Belgian tourist after suffering an accident on his yacht in the Alicante marina. Up to 46 people died on the province's beaches and pools during 2023, the latest known data.

Experts identify prevention as the "key" to avoiding drownings. Men over 55 are the most affected, mainly due to recklessness. Vithas Alicante emphasises that with "safer" attitudes and safety practices, most drownings "can be avoided, regardless of age."

According to neurorehabilitation experts at Irenea, the Vithas Neurological Rehabilitation Institute, based in Elche, the number of injuries increases during the summer, mostly due to "overconfidence and recklessness, risk factors that can be avoided."

For the centre's specialists, prevention is "key," especially for the youngest, "who can suffer a tragedy in just 20 centimetres of water and in less than three minutes."

To reduce the number of summer drownings, Vithas recommends families adopt "essential" prevention measures, including swimming in "designated and supervised" waters; preventing digestion shock by "avoiding sudden entry into the water after eating or sunbathing" and exiting the water at any sign of discomfort, such as chills or dizziness.

Additionally, they stress that it is "crucial to avoid consuming alcohol before swimming, to be cautious when diving in unknown depths, and to alert emergency services immediately, as a quick response can be crucial to saving lives."

Drownings can cause brain injuries due to lack of oxygen (anoxia) or its partial reduction. Dr. Enrique Noé, neurologist at the Vithas Neuroscience Institute and Director of Research at Irenea, points out that the brain "can only withstand four to five minutes of anoxia before suffering irreversible tissue damage. After 15 minutes, more than 95% of brain tissue is damaged."