Third Drowning of the Bathing Season in Alicante: A 70-Year-Old Man on a Torrevieja Beach

Third drowning fatality of the 2025 bathing season in Alicante province. The Emergency Information and Coordination Centre (CICU) confirmed the death of a 70-year-old bather at Cura Beach in Torrevieja this Tuesday, 10th June.

The CICU received the alert around 1 p.m. and dispatched medical personnel to the beach. Meanwhile, other bathers performed resuscitation manoeuvres on the septuagenarian with telephone assistance from a doctor. When the Medical Emergency Service (Samu) team arrived, they continued resuscitation efforts, but without success, and thus declared the man's death at the beach. An autopsy will reveal the causes of the drowning in the coming days.

With barely a month since beaches and pools opened their lifeguard services for the summer, the region has already witnessed three fatal incidents following the tragic death of a 2-year-old girl on 11th May in a private pool in Finestrat and the drowning of a man in a community pool in San Miguel de Salinas two weeks later.

The only case reported this year was that of a Belgian tourist who suffered an accident on his yacht in Alicante's 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 emphasizes that with "safer" attitudes and safety practices, most drownings "can be avoided, regardless of age."

According to neurorehabilitation experts at Irenea, the Neurological Rehabilitation Institute of Vithas, 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" preventive 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, exercise caution when diving in unknown depths, and alert emergency services immediately, as a swift 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 Research Director at Irenea, notes 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."