A 6-year-old girl rescued from the sea at Shoreham was resuscitated but died in hospital after showing signs of a brain injury throughout treatment, an inquest was told this morning (Wednesday 2 September).
Palestinian refugee Hussam El-Khawas, 55, his wife Zeina Alayan, 37, and their daughter Sara El-Khawas, 14, were confirmed dead after being pulled from the water in Shoreham on Tuesday 18 August.
Their younger daughter Saja El-Khawas, six, was taken to hospital in a critical condition and died on Friday 21 August.
An inquest opened into the deaths of the four family members at Horsham heard that the father, mother and older sister were brought to the shore by the RNLI at Kingston Beach but were declared dead at the RNLI lifeboat station.
The hearing was told that the RNLI had responded to reports of “members of the public getting into trouble in the sea”.
The younger daughter, Saja, was initially taken to the Royal Alexandra Children’s Hospital, in Brighton, before being transferred to the Evelina London Children’s Hospital, at St Thomas’ Hospital, in London.
Coroner’s officer Kelly Truss told the hearing: “All clinical signs throughout her admission showed evidence of a hypoxic brain injury.”
Ms Truss said that she was pronounced dead on Friday 21 August and a provisional cause of death given by Dr Hawa Sesay was hypoxic ischaemic encephalopathy and drowning.
Ms Truss said that a cause of death had not yet been ascertained for the other three family members.
She added that Mr El-Khawas’s brother, Adnan Al-Kwass, had been identified as next-of-kin and had been informed of the inquest proceedings but had not attended the brief hearing.
Coroner Penelope Schofield adjourned the inquests until Tuesday 16 March next year and said: “In respect of all four family members, there is an ongoing police investigation. Once that is completed, the inquests will be brought forward.”
She said: “I offer my sincerest condolences to the wider family for the loss of these four family members in these circumstances.”
The inquest heard that Ms Alayan, described as a “homemaker”, was born in March 1989 in Rashidieh, near Tyre, in Lebanon. She was Lebanese.
Her husband, an “employed construction worker”, was born in January 1971 in Rashidieh and was also Lebanese. Both are understood to hold British passports.
Sara was born in October 2012 in Kensington while Saja was born in December 2019, also in Kensington, and the family lived in Craven Park, north west London.
It is believed that the family travelled from their home in London to visit Shoreham and entered the water from the beach near Shoreham Fort at about 2pm before they got into difficulty.
Police, paramedics, coastguard and a lifeboat crew were at the scene where the four people were recovered from the water.
Sussex Police has said that their investigation remains open but, after a review of CCTV footage and initial witness accounts, it is currently thought the deaths were an accident, with no third-party involvement.
Mr El-Khawas was a Palestinian refugee from the Rashidieh Camp, in Lebanon, the Palestinian embassy has said.
Rashidieh Camp is on the Mediterranean coast in southern Lebanon and is one of the most populous Palestinian refugee camps in the country.
A GoFundMe page was set up by the Palestinian Forum in Britain, which supports the Palestinian community in the UK, and last week it exceeded its £20,000 goal to cover funeral and repatriation costs to Lebanon and to support the family which includes two other children.
