It was in front of a father eaten away by grief that our colleagues from HBVL found themselves. Laurens Deconinck, from La Panne, is the father of the little boy who drowned a few days ago in a swimming pool in Esposende, a Portuguese village near Porto. Dàvi Luiz was 3 years old.
If we do not know the exact circumstances of the accident, everything suggests that the toddler escaped the vigilance of his parents who were taking care of Alice, their 1-year-old daughter. “My wife and I thought he was sitting quietly in his room. Until we suddenly realized it was empty. I immediately started looking for it like crazy,” says Laurens.
Devastated, the dad remembers the terrible evening and the macabre discovery that followed. He first went to check near the swimming pool, before retracing his steps: “I then walked to the nearby park where Dàvi Luiz liked to play, but there too, I did not find him. Suddenly I had a strange premonition and retraced my steps to the pool. It was then that I saw him floating, his head in the water. I will never forget this image. I immediately pulled him to dry land. His lips were already blue and I tried to revive him, but I’m not a doctor. I ended up putting him in the car and driving at full speed to the nearest hospital, but it was already too late”.
Laurens asks himself today dozens of questions, without answer. He adds: “And to think that I even considered buying a tarpaulin to cover the swimming pool, but as we were about to move, we decided not to make this expense. If only I had known…”.
Since the tragedy, the Deconinck family has returned to Belgium. The body of the little victim was also repatriated. An autopsy should determine how long the child was in the water and the exact cause of death.