Record number of drowning cases in the summer

A record number of water accidents this summer have ended fatally, reports the University Multidisciplinary Hospital for Active Treatment (UMBAL) in Burgas. Forty-eight deaths resulted from drowning, the Coroner's Office report shows. This is ten more people than in the summer of 2023 and previous years, announced the spokesperson of UMBAL in the city Yulia Andreeva.

If the data is divided by the number of days in the active season - July and August - this means one human life lost per day. There are almost as many cases of patients who were saved after drowning and went through the Emergency Department. The statistics report an almost equal number of incidents involving Bulgarians and foreigners. Both among the dead and among the rescued are small children, left unattended near hotel pools and on the beach, Andreeva informed.

UMBAL-Burgas reports an extremely busy summer season. From June 1 to September 15 this year 14,880 patients passed through the hospital, or an average of 150 people per day, and 700 of them were foreigners. Ninety percent of patients are admitted as an emergency and are referred to UMBAL-Burgas as the only place where 24-hour medical assistance can be provided and medical specialists from more than 30 specialties are available at the same time.

The data in the information bulletin of the Regional Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs-Burgas show that the last case of drowning on the Southern Black Sea coast was nearly a week ago. On September 19 of this year four Bulgarian tourists entered the sea on an unguarded beach near Sinemorets. A woman was swept away by a strong undercurrent, and three men who came in with her tried to save her, but they too were swept away by the water. Rescuers from a neighboring beach joined in their rescue. They managed to pull the woman and two men out of the sea, the third man drowned.