The lawsuit seeks wrongful death damages of $1 million. (Representative pic)
An 8-year-old girl in the United States died after being “violently sucked” into a large pipe while swimming at a hotel in Houston, Texas, on Saturday, as per a lawsuit filed by the victim’s family. Aliyah Jaico was swimming with her family in a lazy river at the Doubletree by Hilton Houston Brookhollow Hotel when she suddenly disappeared, Fox News reported. Hours later, her body was found “inside a large pipe in the pool area,” Houston police said in a statement.
“Her poor little body was contorted when she was sucked into this hole and pipe 20 feet back,” Richard Nava, a lawyer representing the family, told reporters at a news conference. “They had to break up concrete and cut pipe in order to extract her… it was absolutely horrific,” Mr Nava said, per Fox News.
The lawsuit states that the young girl was suddenly pulled into a 12 to 16-inch unsecured open gap in the swimming pool flow system. When she initially disappeared, her family did not know where she had gone, triggering a frantic search. According to the police, she was reported missing at about 5:45 pm Saturday. She was found around 11:30 pm and was pronounced dead by paramedics, cops said, adding that they were “continuing to investigate the incident”.
The family filed the lawsuit earlier this week, seeking wrongful death damages of $1 million. According to the suit, the 8-year-old “loved to swim,” and her mother, Jose Daniela Jaico Ahumada, had rented a room at the hotel that day “to enjoy a day of swimming with her family”.
“It took the fire department 13 hours to actually get her physical body removed from the pipe,” Justin Martinez, a communications representative for the Nava Law Group and the Jaico family, told The Washington Post.
Separately, Mr Nava said that there was “an issue with the flow of the water” inside the pool that caused Aliyah to be sucked into what the lawsuit describes as an “unsecured open gap”. The hole was about 12 to 16 inches wide and the fire department had to “break up” the concrete pipe to retrieve the 8-year-old’s body, he added.
“We are seeking justice for Aliyah, because this could have been avoidable,” Mr Nava said, adding that Aliyah’s loved ones were “devastated” by her death.
The hotel is operated by Unique Crowne Hospitality LLC, according to the lawsuit.
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In a statement to the Post, a Hilton spokesperson said the company was “deeply saddened by the tragic loss of a young girl”. But it also added that the property is “independently owned and operated by a third party”. Hilton said it “does not own, manage, or control the day-to-day operations of the property and does not employ any of the property’s staff or its third-party operators”.
A spokesman for Unique Crowne Hospitality said that the company is “deeply saddened” by Aliyah’s death. “We offer our sincere and deepest condolences to her family and loved ones at this difficult time,” the statement said. “Our commitment to providing a safe and secure environment for our guests is paramount and we will continue to cooperate fully with all authorities investigating this incident,” it added.