Boston Personal Injury Attorney Blog
According to a recent news feature from ABC 6 RTV, a 19-year-old man was at the YMCA pool when he suffered a tragic and untimely drowning death. His family has subsequently hired a personal injury lawyer and has filed a lawsuit alleging wrongful death, among other counts.
Authorities say the accident occurred just a few days before Memorial Day and the start of this year’s swim season. There was a lifeguard on duty, though according to family of the victim, this lifeguard was ultimately part of the problem. The family is arguing that, if the lifeguard was properly trained and capable of doing his job effectively, their son would still be alive.
Victim’s sister said everyone was normal and that they just went for a swim, as they do several times a week. Other members of her family were there as well to watch the victim and his sister go swimming. Witnesses say that after the two were swimming for around 45 minutes, they decided to head towards the shallow end of the pool.
While they were swimming to the shallow end of the pool, victim’s sister noticed that he was in trouble, as he began thrashing around in the water and was going under. At this point, victim’s sister made eye contact with the lifeguard who was on duty at the time to signal that her brother was in obvious distress. She said she asked him two times to come over and help before he actually went of offer assistance.
By this point, victim was on the bottom of the pool, and the lifeguard went into to get him. The lifeguard dove down to the bottom of the pool but was unable to get him for some reason, and, allegedly, he gave up trying and did not swim to him again. He allegedly told victim’s sister that he couldn’t get down there and didn’t know what and yelled for someone to call 911.
After about four to five minutes had passed, other people who worked at that the YMCA, along with others there as members, were able to jump into the pool and pull him out of the water. He was already in a coma by the time they got him out of the water and was rushed to a local level-one trauma center. He died less than two weeks later.
His family said they are going to be suing the YMCA, because they never should have had a lifeguard who was not capable of immediately responding to someone drowning and pull that person to safety. This particular victim weighed 130 pounds at the time of his death. As the family sees the matter, any competent and trained lifeguard should have made that save and done so in much less time. As our Boston personal injury attorneys can explain, one of the primary causes of action in cases such as these is negligent hire and supervision. This means that an employer was negligent in choosing to hire a particular employee.
If you are injured in an accident in Boston, call Jeffrey Glassman Injury Lawyers for a free and confidential appointment — (617) 777-7777.
Additional Resources:
Family to sue YMCA over 19-year-old’s death following drowning, May 27, 2016, ABC News, By Anne Kelly
More Blog Entries:
Wilkins v. City of Haverhill – Massachusetts Supreme Court Weighs Slip-and-Fall Claim, May 23, 2014, Boston Personal Injury Attorney Blog