A 57-year-old foreign woman died after she was found drowned while undergoing aquatic therapy in a condominium swimming pool in Tanjung Bungah on Saturday.
Timur Laut district police chief ACP Abdul Rozak Muhammad said police received information about the incident from a member of the public at 6.10pm.
Preliminary investigation found that the woman and her husband had entered the pool for their therapy session at 5.20pm, Free Malaysia Today reported. The man then left her for a short while to answer a phone call from a friend.
“The victim’s husband left for about five minutes, and when he returned to the swimming pool, he found her underwater. She was believed to have fallen off a float,” Abdul Rozak said in a statement.
“Her husband then jumped into the pool, brought her out and performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). However, medical personnel who arrived at the scene pronounced the woman dead at 5.49pm.”
The body, Bernama noted, was sent to the forensic department of Penang Hospital for a post-mortem to determine the cause of death. Abdul Rozak said preliminary investigation found no criminal elements in the incident and the case was classified as a Sudden Death Report.
The woman was pronounced dead 29 minutes after the therapy session began, according to the timings police released. The pool sits inside a private condominium in Tanjung Bungah, a residential district on Penang island’s northern coast.
Aquatic therapy is a form of rehabilitation carried out in water, where buoyancy takes weight off the joints. Sessions are commonly prescribed for people recovering from surgery, managing joint pain or rebuilding strength after illness. A float or buoyancy aid is often used to support the patient while the therapist guides movement through the water.
Police did not state the woman’s nationality, how long she had been in Penang, or whether anyone else was at the pool at the time. Her husband’s name and age were also not released.
Under Malaysian practice, a Sudden Death Report is opened when police find no evidence of a criminal act in a death. The report is forwarded to the coroner, who may call an inquest if the cause of death is not established or if the circumstances need to be examined in open court. A post-mortem result is usually the document that settles whether the matter closes or moves to an inquest.
Drownings in private pool settings are usually reviewed for supervision arrangements and for whether a lifeguard or trained responder was on hand. Police have not said whether the condominium’s pool had a lifeguard on duty, and they have not named the property.
Abdul Rozak described the investigation as preliminary. The statement did not name the condominium, the woman’s nationality or the therapist who was to conduct the session. Police said the post-mortem would determine the cause of death.
