‘Extremely emotional scene’: Father, grandfather drown in Gold Coast trying to save toddler

The toddler’s mother attempted to save the child who’d fallen into a resort pool on the Gold Coast but she couldn’t swim, prompting the men to jump in.

A Victorian family’s Easter weekend in the Gold Coast has ended in tragedy after two men drowned trying to rescue a two-year-old girl.

Dharmvir Singh, 38, and his father Gurjinder Singh, 65, attempted to rescue Dharmvir’s daughter who fell into the pool of a Surfers Paradise resort on Sunday night.

Paramedics rushed to the Top of the Mark hotel on Orchid Avenue at about 6:45pm and found the two men in cardiac arrest following the drowning incident.

It is believed the toddler’s mother attempted to save the child, but that she could not swim, prompting the men to jump in.

Queensland Ambulance’s Gold Coast senior operations supervisor Mitchell Ware said the child was playing by the side of the pool prior to the double drowning.

“It’s believed that that child has lost their footing, causing them to fall into a deeper part of the pool, at which point the two male patients then entered the pool in an attempt to rescue that child and found themselves in trouble at the pool,” Mr Ware said.

“Subsequently to that, bystanders were able to retrieve them from the water and performed good quality, effective CPR prior to our arrival.”

510 'Top of the Mark Orchid Ave, Surfers Paradise

The men, who were also known as Sunny Randhawa and Randhawa G by family and friends, were unable to be revived and died at the scene. The mother and toddler were retrieved from the water, and the woman was transported to Gold Coast University Hospital in a stable condition.

“It’s an extremely emotional scene,” Mr Ware said.

“Obviously, anyone could understand, that not to just lose one family member, but to lose two family members, obviously it’s the start of the school holidays … we do see increases in post immersion cases in and around the Easter long weekend.”

Mitch Ware from Ambulance Services Gold Coast region. Picture: Regi Varghese

He used the incident to urge the community to exercise caution around water.

“Especially if you’re not a strong swimmer, and especially if there’s young children around that you are really careful because we know that children and even adults can drown in a couple of seconds,” Mr Ware said.

“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 and also the first responders.”