Young boy resuscitated and intubated after near-drowning at Marathia beach in Elis

Emergency at Marathia beach

On the afternoon of Friday, 28 August 2026, emergency medical services responded to an incident at Marathia beach in Elis, western Greece, where a young boy suffered a severe near-drowning episode. The boy, identified in several regional reports as eight years old and in subsequent reporting as nine, had been swimming and diving into the sea alongside other children of his age group. Under circumstances that remain under official investigation, the child swallowed a large volume of seawater during the activity. The sudden intake of water caused a rapid deterioration in his physical condition, leading to a complete loss of consciousness. Bystanders and guardians at the seaside immediately contacted the National Center for Emergency Care (EKAV), which dispatched an emergency ambulance team to the scene.

Resuscitation at Amaliada Hospital

Paramedics transported the unconscious child to the nearby General Hospital of Amaliada, where emergency medical personnel initiated urgent resuscitation measures. Upon arrival at the emergency unit, the child presented in critical condition without a detectable pulse, exhibiting severe cyanosis, hypothermia, and marked abdominal distension resulting from the swallowed seawater. The attending medical team acted quickly to clear the airway and evacuated a substantial quantity of seawater from the boy's stomach. Doctor Vangelis Dimitropoulos, who received the child at the hospital and participated directly in the revival effort, described the encounter in a statement shared after the operation.

When you see a child blue, pulseless, with his body frozen and his belly bloated as a consequence of drowning, the only thing you think about is that he must live! I did what I could, I did what I had to do!

Through continuous emergency intervention, doctors succeeded in restoring the child's spontaneous circulation, stabilizing his blood pressure, and eliciting neurological responsiveness.

The child changed color, began to cry, regained blood pressure and pulse, and his little eyes were opening and closing. How much vindication for a doctor that his struggle and his effort had success! God wanted him to live and he will live.

Intubation and intensive care transfer

Due to the severity of the immersion and the persistent risks of pulmonary complications from seawater aspiration, physicians performed tracheal intubation to secure the boy's respiratory function. Given the need for specialised paediatric critical care, doctors organized transfer protocols across regional healthcare facilities. While initial reports on Friday evening indicated plans for immediate admission to the University General Hospital of Patras in Rio, hospital updates on the morning of Saturday, 29 August 2026, confirmed that the boy was being managed under intubation at the General Hospital of Pyrgos. Medical teams planned his subsequent transfer to the Paediatric Intensive Care Unit at Rio as soon as his physiological indicators stabilized.