A holidaymaker has told of the horrific moment he found a baby's body in the Thames and desperately tried to save her life.

John West was on a cruising holiday with his wife Sue when a mother and her two children fell into the river near their boat.

The couple frantically scrambled to help the family when they spotted the tiny hand of 10-month-old Monica Parsons poking out of the murky water.

Thanks to their efforts and that of a former policeman who had been fishing, she was pulled out of the river at Goring-on-Thames near Oxford and airlifted to hospital.

Doctors later pronounced Monica dead after doing everything to revive her but miraculously she 'came back to life' when a faint heartbeat was found.

She was in a critical condition in intensive care overnight but lost her fight for life in the early hours of today.

The Wests, from Chipping Norton, at first thought there were animals in the water when they heard screeching as they made their way down the river.


But on realising it was a young mother and her two children, college lecturer Mr West, 55, grabbed a lifejacket and dived headfirst into the water.

Mrs West, 54, said: 'The first thing we heard was a screech.


'We thought it was an animal, then we thought it was kids mucking about but then we heard the words "help" and "my baby".'

As they looked out, they spotted a woman in the water near the riverbank clutching a young child.

Mr West said: 'She (the mother) said "my baby" and I realised there was another one in the water.'

As he swam in the direction she was gesturing in, he stumbled across baby Monica's body.


'There was a little hand sticking out of the water. I pulled her out and I swam with her, holding her up,' he said.

'There were no signs of life whatsoever and I could not administer any CPR at all because if I had, I would have had to let go of the branch I was holding and we would have both gone under.'

Another nearby boat gave Mr West a lifeline to help him out of the water before he and the fisherman helped the mother and her other child on to the bank.

Police and an ambulance arrived moments later to take Monica to hospital.