Young girl’s brave act during tragic Gold Coast Top of the Mark hotel pool drowning that claimed the life of her father and grandfather

A young girl desperately tried to save her father and grandfather with a towel before they drowned in a hotel pool on the Gold Coast. 

Dharmvir Singh, 38, and Gurjinder Singh, 65, lost consciousness after jumping into the rooftop pool at the Top of the Mark Holiday Apartments in Surfers Paradise fully clothed just before 7pm on Sunday.

They had been trying to save the younger man’s wife and two-year-old daughter, who got into trouble when they drifted into deeper water. 

While the woman and the young child managed to make it to safety, the two men got into difficulty.

A seven-year-old girl, the two-year-old’s older sister, tried to reach her father and grandfather from the water’s edge with a towel to pull them back to safety as they flailed in the water.

Sadly, her desperate rescue efforts could not save the two men. 

The two men were pulled from the water by bystanders who performed CPR until emergency services arrived. However, the pair had gone into cardiac arrest and were tragically unable to be saved.

Signs on the pool’s perimeter indicate the pool is 2.1 metres deep at its deepest point and one metre deep at the shallow end.

It’s understood the family were visiting the Gold Coast from Victoria. 

A family friend reportedly told the media that the two men would be ‘sorely missed’.

‘Maybe God take good people early, so that’s what happened,’ he said, according to The Courier Mail.

‘It’s a very big blow to their family.

‘I have promised to his wife that whatever we as friends can (do to) help, we will do.’

Mitchell Ware from Queensland Ambulance Service said it was an ‘extremely emotional scene’.

‘Obviously, anyone could understand that – not just to lose one family member but to lose two family members,’ Mr Mitchell said. 

The pool is on top of the apartment block, several stories above the street, and other families were using it at the time of the tragedy.

Mr Ware said tragic incidents like the double fatality on Sunday morning affected the entire community.

‘These incidents can have long-lasting effects not just for the family members involved, but also the people that were at the scene as well,’ he said.

Mr Ware said it was unclear if flotation devices were available at the pool, adding water depth didn’t make much of a difference for those who are not strong swimmers.

A report will be prepared for the coroner. 

Australia has been rocked by a spate of drownings in recent months, with more than 90 people killed between December 1 and February 29 this year.

Last month, a 13-year-old girl was left orphaned after her parents Leslie, 49, and Jon Ballo, 50, drowned while crabbing in Western Australia.

The couple, who are both Filipino, were recovered by police from the water near the Herron Point boat ramp in Birchmont.

Earlier in March, an international student was pulled from a waterfall in Queensland after going missing.

The 20-year-old went missing on March 10 at about 3pm after he leapt from a ledge into water at Crystal Cascades, west of Cairns, and failed to surface.

A search and rescue operation was launched by emergency services to find the young man.

Police divers from Brisbane aided in the search and located the young man’s body at about 6pm the next day.

It is understood the tourist was swept downstream after swimming at the top of a set of waterfalls – an area marked as a no-swim zone.