Boy Drowns in Anaheim Hotel Pool

A 13-year-old boy from Washington state who had never learned how to swim drowned during an early Friday-morning dip in an Anaheim hotel pool.

Philip Pham was vacationing with his immediate family and two cousins at the Ramada Limited Hotel. After a long drive, the eight family members had just arrived in Southern California to visit Disneyland and other tourist attractions.

Philip was in the pool area with his cousin, John Mai, and John’s uncle Paul Mai, both of San Jose. Philip’s parents and three siblings went to their hotel room.

Philip and John, both 13, went into the pool while Paul Mai--a cousin of Philip’s father--sat in the hot tub.

But the Mais did not know that Philip had never learned to swim. John had met his cousin for the first time about a week before. So when John saw Philip walking toward the deep end, and later saw him bobbing on the surface, he thought nothing of it. “I thought he was coming up for air and going down,” John Mai said. “He wasn’t struggling.”

After awhile, John went to the hot tub to warm up. His uncle asked about Philip. The two then saw him on the bottom of the pool.

Paul Mai dove in and pulled his young cousin out, felt for a pulse and began giving CPR.

Paramedics arrived at 12:50 a.m. Philip wasn’t breathing and had no pulse, said Kent Mastain, spokesman for the Anaheim Fire Department. Paramedics tried for about 30 minutes to revive Philip, then took him to nearby West Anaheim Medical Center, where doctors couldn’t revive him.

The oldest of four children, Philip was a shy, introverted boy who loved computers and carried a portable video game everywhere, relatives said. “He was a nice kid, extremely quiet,” said Paul Mai. Initially, Philip and his cousin John started off leery of each other when they met in San Jose, Paul Mai said. But they soon grew close. Philip taught John Mai some tricks on the computer and traded turns with him on the video game.

Immigrants from Vietnam, the Phams were extremely protective of their children, said Paul Mai. When Mai wanted to take their son to Raging Waters in Northern California, the parents said no.

Mai planned the trip to Southern California, telling the Phams they could relax and he would take care of everything.

Paul Mai said he had taken extra pains to help watch his cousin’s children during their stay in California.

Hotel clerk Jennifer Arruda said that when Timothy Pham returned from the hospital where his son was pronounced dead, he walked around dazed, looking at the pool.

“My son is dead,” he said. “How could this have happened?”