A 5-year-old girl is lucky to be alive after surviving a freak accident out of a horror movie. She was trapped by a hotel pool drain while on vacation.
5-year-old Paloma Quatrini was just days from her birthday in February 2025. She had went to the Punta Mita Resort in Mexico with her parents, Carolina Velez and dad Adam Quatrini. The 5-year-old was swimming in the kids' pool at the Kupuri Beach Club.
That's when Paloma sat down in the water. The 5-year-old became trapped by the hotel pool drain due to an alleged defect. Hayward reportedly manufactured the drain. A company spokesperson said, "Hayward is saddened to learn of the injuries Paloma Quatrini suffered while at the Kupuri Beach Club at the Punta Mita Resort in Nayarit, Mexico, and we wish her a speedy recovery."
The parents tried to pull the little girl away from the drain, but the suction was too strong. Eventually, someone went under the pool and turned it off. The young girl was severely injured.
Pool Drain Almost Kills 5-Year-Old Girl
According to CBS News, Adam and Carolina tried to pull their daughter away from the drain, but the force of the pressure was too strong.
"The suction was so strong that [her] small intestine was ripped out of her body," the complaint states. She needed life-saving surgery from Dr. Geoffrey Bond.
"As a dad, firstly, it's a horrifying accident," Bond said. The girl ultimately needed dozens of surgeries to reconstruct her small digestive system. "All of the small bowel was gone. We brought the colon up and joined the colon to the small bowel, so essentially she's connected, but she has no small bowel."
At 5-years-old, the young girl has to get parenteral nutrition treatment every night.
"Because of the defective nature of the Hayward drain, [Paloma's] life was tragically altered, and she will endure continued medical issues for the rest of her life," the complaint states.
Attorney Robert Zimmerman explained why they filed the lawsuit in Pittsburgh.
"A 3-year-old girl should not have to litigate her case in a foreign country where she was almost killed," the lawyer said. "The last thing these parents want to do is go back to Mexico, where this horrific incident occurred."
