After I read this the first time I couldn't believe what I had just read and had to go back through and re-read. I know that newspaper reports don't necessarily always get the news 'correct', but this one was rather shocking. In the article, we learn that a 22 year old female had come to complete her morning work-out at Planet Fitness.
Once she was finished, she went to the locker-room, then went to the rest-room. One of the other female club members heard her fall to the floor in the bathroom and was able to see her body laying on the floor under the stall. The club member ran to the front desk to report another club member was in trouble and needed assistance. The response that was given by the male front desk attendant was rather alarming. He basically let the club member know he was the only club worker on site and couldn't leave the front desk but had to wait for another worker to arrive.
The article moves on to discuss that the attendant did not call 911 until coaxed by a second member (why the members didn't call themselves isn't made clear). The female worker finally reports to work and finds the young lady with a 'weak' pulse. An ambulance is called, but unfortunately, she dies. We also find that that Planet Fitness was to have an AED on site as well as someone credentialed to use it - again, these standards were not met by Planet Fitness. I hope the paper will follow the case so that we can find the legal outcome. In any case, my hope would be that common sense would have prevailed and that the attendant would have left the front desk to check on the club member or at the least, called 911. We cannot be sure if the outcome would have been different if this occurred, but we will never know as this did not take place.
Surprising, sad and alarming but not completely uncommon. I read an article last year in the New York Times focusing on AEDs in gyms. The article disucssed that the state of New York does require gyms to have an AED and staff trained to use them but the staff isn't actually mandated to use them on a stricken patron. So why the heck even require them if no one has to really use them, I suppose the hope lies in that there will be "a doctor in the house". I became curious and started looking into negligence cases like this one. While I didn't find any exactly like this, there was a patron from Bally's who died of cardiac arrest because the Bally's staff (who was trained in both AED and CPR) chose not to administer it because the man still had a slight pulse and shallow breathing. The staffer then proceeded to leave the man to check to see where EMT was and once EMT arrived they shocked the man but were unable to revive him. It seems to me that better legislation/regulations need to be put in effect to keep more gym patrons safe. The gyms are very smart about the wording of their liability clauses so buyer be ware and make sure you ask questions about what they will do for you if this should happen. Great article!!
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