Boy rescued in pool drama

By Sarah Chambers

A MOTHER has praised a man who jumped and in rescued her eight-year-old son after he hit his head against the side of a swimming pool and suffered concussion.

Theo Costain was airlifted to hospital after he banged his head against the side of the family's pool and appeared to be slipping into unconsciousness.

Fortunately, quick-thinking Matthew Lincoln had seen the accident and immediately plunged fully clothed into the pool and pulled the young boy to safety.

The accident happened at about 11am on Friday at Theo's family's holiday home in Dunwich Forest while he was playing with two of his friends.

Theo's mother, Jan, said: "The children were messing about in the swimming pool and my little boy jumped in and cracked his head very hard against the side of the swimming pool.

"Matthew brilliantly jumped right in in his clothes and dragged Theo straight out."

Mr Lincoln, 20, of The Street, Westleton, was supervising Theo in the pool when the accident happened.

He said: "I saw he hit his head and I called his name and he surfaced again. He was crying and upset."

Theo was taken inside to recover after the accident, but was sick and started feeling sleepy.

"He was just drowsy and he wanted to sleep. He was lying back and his eyes were rolling back in his head a bit," added Mr Lincoln.

The emergency services were called and a volunteer first responder team arrived before Theo was airlifted to Ipswich Hospital by the East Anglian Air Ambulance.

"They were all just awesome," said Mrs Costain, who was working in her study when the accident happened. "He had obviously had a terrible shock. He just had bad concussion."

Theo was kept at Ipswich Hospital for a few hours after being airlifted to the accident and emergency department, but was later discharged and has suffered no ill-effects from his ordeal.

sarah.chambers@eadt.co.uk