Sports Journo Dies After Fainting In Sea On Holiday

A sports journalist has died after he fainted while swimming in the sea at night while on holiday in Brazil.

The accident took place on the popular Canasvieira beach in the tourist city of Florianopolis in the state of Santa Catarina in southern Brazil.

Local media report that Argentinian sports journalist Marcelo Pagliaccio, 32, who was on holiday in the city was on his way back to his hostel from a night out with some friends when the tragedy happened.

Marcelo Pagliaccio

The journalist reportedly decided to go swimming in the sea at a beach called Canasvieiras when he fainted in deep water and began drowning.

His friends managed to take him out of the water and they tried to perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) on him before the emergency services arrived at the scene to take over, according to local media.

Lieutenant of the local fire service Guilherme Cesario said the victim was on the sand when rescuers got to the scene and he was taken to the North Emergency Unit in Canasvierias where he arrived alive. However, he then suffered a cardiorespiratory arrest and died, according to Cesario.

Reports state Argentine consuls in Brazil Gustavo Coppa and Celina Cirilo contacted the family to help begin the repatriation process while Pagliaccio’s sisters have travelled from Argentina to Brazil to help.

Pagliaccio’s co-worker at the newspaper ‘Diario Ole’ in the Argentinian capital of Buenos Aries wrote on social media: “Pain and more pain because a great man is gone. He had a lot ahead to live because Paglia – as we called him – was just a great man. ‘Ole’ is mourning”

Marcelo Pagliaccio