Saja El-Khawas, a six-year-old girl, died from a brain injury three days after being rescued from the sea. The incident took place on August 18 at Kingston Beach near Shoreham Fort, where her parents and elder sister also drowned.
Saja El-Khawas's three-day fight at Evelina Children's Hospital
After being pulled from the water by a lifeboat crew, Saja El-Khawas was resuscitated on the beach before receiving initial care at the Royal Alexandra Children's Hospital in Brighton. According to the report, her condition required a transfer to the Evelina Children's Hospital in London, where she eventually succumbed to her injuries. Dr. Hawa Sesay formally attributed the child's death to a brain injury caused by drowning.
Medical records presented at a preliminary inquest indicated that clinical signs throughout her hospital admission showed evidence of hypoxic brain injury. This means the brain was deprived of oxygen for a critical period while she was submerged in the sea at Kingston Beach.
The £23,000 effort to return the El-Khawas family to Rashidieh Camp
The victims were British-Palestinian refugees who resided in a two-bedroom council flat in Craven Park, north-west London. Both parents, Hussam Abdallah El-Khawas and Zeina Alayan, were born in Rashidieh Camp, a Palestinian refugee camp located on the Mediterranean coast of southern Lebanon.. While they held British passports, they maintained their Lebanese nationality.
The tragedy sparked a significant community response, with more than £23,000 raised to ensure the bodies of the four family members could be transported back to Lebanon. as the report says, they were ultimately laid to rest in a ceremony at the Rashidieh refugee camp, returning to the place where the parents were born.
Why Sussex Police believe CCTV points to a tragic accident
Sussex Police have conducted a review of witness accounts and CCTV footage to determine how the family ended up in distress during their day trip from London. the current hypothesis from investigators is that the event was a tragic accident. The police have explicitly stated that there is no evidence of third-party involvement in the deaths of Zeina Alayan, Hussam Abdallah El-Khawas, and Sara El-Khawas.
This incident echoes a recurring pattern of coastal tragedies where families,often unfamiliar with local currents or tide changes, find themselves in sudden difficulty. The Shoreham community marked the loss with a minute of silence and a memorial involving kayaks and paddleboards on the water.
The unascertained causes of death for Zeina, Hussam, and Sara
While Saja's cause of death was clearly linked to hypoxic brain injury,the specifics for the other three family members remain unclear. dr. Mark Taylor performed post-mortem examinations on the mother, father, and 14-year-old daughter in Brighton, but the report notes that their causes of death remain unascertained pending further investigation.
Several critical questions remain unanswered: what specific water conditions led four people—including an adult male and a teenager—into simultaneous distress, and why did the post-mortems not immediately yield a cause of death? The senior coroner for Brighton and West Sussex, Penelope Schofield, is expected to address these gaps during a full inquest scheduled for March next year.
Comments 0