Hotel plunge girl transferred to UK hospital

A seven-year-old girl who plunged 30ft from a hotel balcony in Majorca is recovering back home in the UK, it was revealed today.

Gianna Cooper, from Cambridgeshire, suffered extensive head injuries, a broken jaw and serious internal damage when she fell from the fifth floor of the Hotel Samoa in the resort of Calas de Majorca two weeks ago.

Today, a hospital spokesman confirmed that she had left the island’s Son Dureta University Hospital.

He said: “Gianna left the hospital at 1pm on Saturday, Majorca time, at the request of her father, and has returned to the UK.”

The girl has been transferred to Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge.

A spokesman at Addenbrooke’s said that the girl remained in a serious but stable condition but was conscious and able to breathe by herself.

He added that, although Gianna was able to return to the UK she would still need hospital treatment and was not well enough to go home yet.

The youngster had been in the intensive care unit of the Majorcan hospital since her fall on the morning of Monday October 22.

She was taken to Majorca’s Manacor hospital where she underwent a three-hour operation for her injuries before being transferred to Son Dureta hospital.

Her mother Sara Cooper, 45, vanished shortly after Gianna’s fall and her disappearance sparked a land and sea search on the island.

Her body was found two days later, washed up in a cave close to the hotel complex.

Mrs Cooper had been sharing a room with her daughter while the girl’s father Ian and brothers James, 14 and Jonathan, 10 were sleeping nearby.

Mrs Cooper’s husband Ian said he was devastated by the news.

In the statement, released by the Foreign Office, Mr Cooper also asked for his family to be left alone to recover from their loss and to look after Gianna.

Police on the island have been trying to piece together the moments leading up to the girl’s fall.

Officers in Majorca investigating the case said Gianna may have been pushed over the railings and said that they hoped to talk to the girl when she regained consciousness.

A police spokeswoman said: “We are considering two possibilities; that she fell by accident or that someone pushed her.”

She added that police would want to speak to the girl when she was better but said that there was the possibility that she would not remember anything.

The Foreign Office refused to comment on the girl’s move back to the UK, saying only that officials were continuing to provide consular assistance to the family.