Tommy Jetson visits his doctor's office and is informed that he is a prime candidate for a heart attack at age 48 (curent age not given). His blood cholesterol level is 310 mg/dL, has high blood pressure, is overweight, and doesn't exercise.
The next day, Tommy goes to the gym to pick up his wife who does exercise. He parks his car and waits for her in the gym's lobby. While waiting for his wife, Tommy suddenly collapses to the floor. A gym employee rushes to his side and realizes that Tommy is not breathing, has no pulse and appears unconscious and unresponsive. The employee directs that the Emergency Medical Service assistance be called. The employee begins administering CPR, since the gym did NOT have an automated external defibrillator (AED) on the premises.
Two emergency medical technicians arrive 12 minutes after being called. They begin adminestering shocks from their AED pads (an item from their emergency equipment). They are unable to discern a pulse. CPR was resumed for one minute, then more shocks were administered. NO PULSE WAS DETECTED.
Tommy is then transported to the nearest emergency trauma center. Subsequent attempts to revive Tommy failed. An autopsy performed following Tommy's death indicated that he did not die from a heart attack but rather from suddent cardiac arrest (SCA).
According to medical experts, the only accepted treatment to restore an effective heart rhythm in victims of SCA is defibrillation using an AED. CPR alone is NOT enough.
Tommy's wife is contemplating suing the gym for negligence. Any recommendations please?
lcr000
some insurance companies will not insure a Business that has AED's because of the liability, SCA and myocardial infarction is the same thing, no one is legally required to provide aid to any one unless they are a medical professional
Snarki Tiki
Tommy's wife should have been nagging him to get to the gym and watch his diet before he got in such bad shape in the first place...
Not having a specific emergency medical device at the gym does not constitute negligence. It is unreasonable to expect that a gym would have the proper medical equipment in place to cover any potential medical emergency. It's a gym, not a trauma center. If the gym had an AED and it wasn't used properly, charged properly, if the staff wasn't trained properly, etc then the gym could be liable so they probably thought it best to not bother in the first place.
If the government wants to start legislating that gyms require AED's then they can do that and this case could have a different outcome. That would be a poor decision for a number of reasons, though.
Raquel
lcr000, SCA and myocardial infarction (heart attack) are NOT the same thing. Not sure where you're getting your information from.
And to answer the Original question, unless AEDs are required to be kept in the gym, she cannot sue. There was no negligence on the part of the gym because CPR was started immediately, and everything within their means was done and done correctly. The patient obviously had significant risk factors, as he was just informed by his PCP. The other thing is he wasn't actually working out at the gym, so assuming the AED would have been there in the event that one of the members went into cardiac arrest as a result of their exercising, he was not there to exercise.
Demitri Reynolds
Suing the gym would involve proving negligence. The gym does not owe any duty of care to Tommy-especially if he was not even using the facilities at the time. I am not sure that negligence would hold up in this particular case. Here is an article on proving negligence that you may want to look over to see if this case applies: http://www.spiroslaw.com/articles/negligence-and-personal-injury-claims/
Best of luck with everything.
Orignal From: Tips: Recommendations for a negligence demand?
Post a Comment