A few weeks ago, the Virginia Graeme Baker Pool and Spa Safety Act aimed at making swimming pools around the country safer, and the possibility of horrible drowning and mutilations a thing of the past came into force. We reported on our blog then, on how the Act has not really resulted in the installation of new drain covers in all California pools. The WSJ Law Blog now paints a similar picture that’s being seen around the country. Even with the new federal safety rule, thousands of swimming pools in the US continue to be fitted with single drain caps that present a strong danger of deaths by drowning or entrapment.

The Virginia Graeme Baker Pool and Spa Safety Act was enacted in memory of the young grand daughter of former Secretary of State James Baker. The little girl was celebrating a school graduation in a hot tub on her family property when her body became stuck to the drain at the bottom of the hot tub. Her mother, who had rushed out of the home after Virginia’s friends panicked, dove into the tub and found her daughter stuck to the bottom, unable to break free. As she recounted later, she didn’t know what was wrong, and when she tried to pry the little girl loose, she wouldn’t budge – it was as if she had been glued to the bottom of the pool. The little girl died, and it was only later that the cause of death was ascertained – she had been sucked below by the drain which packs an incredible amount of suction power, and had been trapped there, powerless to break free.

Incidents of disembowelment have also been reported. In one incident that took place in California, a Mission Viejo family was faced with their worst nightmare when their three-year-old son was sucked down by the drain of the hot tub, and almost disemboweled. The boy was lucky - his parents were able to rescue him before the drain sucked out this intestines. Other children aren’t so lucky. Abigail Taylor was six-years-old when she sat on an open pool drain and had part of her intestine sucked out by the drain. The girl died a few months later.

As many as 80 percent of the pools as well as spas and hot tubs in the country, may still be fitted with the older single drain caps. The biggest problem in making the pools at these hotels, resorts, clubs and recreation facilities compliant with the new rule, seems to be the availability of the recommended drain covers. Pool owners complain that these were only introduced into the market a few months ago, and are now in extremely short supply. For pools located in residential complexes and other facilities, the cost of installing the drain covers which could cost between $1,000 and $10,000 to install, could be a deterrent in following the law.

Meanwhile, children around the country including California, are splashing about in pools that are still equipped with the dangerous pool drain covers. Safety experts caution parents to confirm if the public pool their children are using comes fitted with the new domed drain covers. Older children or adults must swim carefully and not venture near the drains. Until such time as all pools are fitted with the drain covers, these measures may help prevent more horrific pool drowning accidents.

The Reeves Law Group is a law firm with offices throughout California dedicated exclusively to the representation of personal injury victims, including victims of pool accidents. Please visit our website at trlglaw.com. If you desire a free consultation on a personal injury matter, please call us at (800) 644-8000 or email us.

The bursting of the real estate bubble has meant many things to Americans – foreclosures, loss of consumer confidence, and a general dipping of the economy that has many citizens worried about the future. It may also mean something that not many have taken into consideration – the possibility of swimming pool accidents in homes abandoned due to foreclosure.

In the city of Rialto alone, there are 853 properties lying abandoned and unused.  So far, officials have taken about 155 calls for abandoned pools. Of these, 21 calls remain active. 

The danger of swimming pool accidents claiming lives or causing injuries is acute enough to have alarmed the authorities into action. Fire and law enforcement agencies in San Bernardino are meeting with child safety experts to formulate a plan to alert the public to the dangers of swimming pool accidents posed by abandoned pools.

The problem is serious enough to warrant attention. Between 2000 and 2005, there were a total of 44 drowning-related deaths in San Bernardino County.  The prospect of large pools lying open and easily accessible to curious kids playing in the neighborhood is an alarming one, and officials are very concerned about the possibilities.   Apart from the risk of drowning by small children not old enough to swim properly is a host of other dangers too. Most of these pools have been lying vacant for months now, ever since the foreclosure dam broke, and the water in them has turned green with slime.  The murky water conceals many hidden risks – plastic bags that could easily entangle and drown kids who happen to fall in.  Not only that, these pools have been lying stagnant for a long time now, and the water had been left untreated.  The possibility of the water being a health hazard is extremely high, and could easily cause serious illnesses in kids who fall in and swallow a few mouthfuls of the water.

Calls to secure these abandoned swimming pools are growing louder. Although the County has the authority to drain the pools, this would be a last resort option, officials say because of the huge expense involved in draining out every single pool that belongs to an abandoned home.  Instead, contractors are hired to nail plywood barriers or fencing around the pool to prevent swimming pool accidents.

Nationwide, the highest number of drowning deaths in children aged between 1 and 4 involve swimming pool accidents in the home.  Child safety experts have repeatedly stressed the importance of setting up alarms around the pool, and to fence the area around the pool to prevent access by an unsupervised child.  Even with all this emphasis on swimming pool safety, the incidence of drowning-related deaths in kids has risen a whopping 89 per cent between May and August this year.

With so many hundreds of pools lying vacant and presenting a high danger of swimming pool accidents, we hope the authorities take the task of securing these abandoned pools seriously and finish the process as quickly as possible.

The Reeves Law Group is a law firm with offices throughout California dedicated exclusively to the representation of personal injury victims, including victims of swimming pool accidents.  Please visit our website at trlglaw.com. If you desire a free consultation on a personal injury matter, please call us at (800) 644-8000 or email us.

Here’s one more reminder to keep your eyes on your children every time they are anywhere near a swimming pool. On July 18, rock legend and Fleetwood Mac drummer Mick Fleetwood suffered a parent’s worst nightmare when his 6-year-old daughter was seriously injured in a swimming pool accident. Yesterday came the good news that she has been discharged from Los Angeles’ Cedar Sinai Hospital, doing much better than her distraught parents had hoped for.

The swimming pool accident reportedly happened at the home of a family friend in Los Angeles. The young girl, Ruby, and her twin, Tessa, were enjoying a play date. Initial reports said that Ruby, who is apparently an excellent swimmer, was doing cartwheels at the edge of the pool when she hit her head on the edge, and fell into the water. Her parents have since refuted that she was doing cartwheels near the pool. She was, in fact, doing somersaults under the water, they claim. What is a fact however, is that she swallowed a lot of water, and became severely disoriented. In fact, she became unconscious in the pool. She was revived by using CPR, and rushed to West Hills Hospital, and then Cedar Sinai where she had been since.

Her injuries were reported to be “potentially extremely serious” by doctors treating her, but according to the hospital spokespeople, she has made remarkable progress. She still hasn’t made a complete recovery, but her doctors and parents are optimistic that she will recover fully from the injuries she suffered.

There is no indication of what kind of supervision was going on at the home where the swimming pool accident occurred. A 6-year-old little girl turning somersaults in the water does seem unnecessarily risky. The risk of inhaling water or swallowing large quantities is considerable. Wasn’t there an adult supervisor to prevent her from putting herself in danger? A situation where you have a bunch of lively kids, who pride themselves on their swimming skills seems like one where there should be more than a normal amount of diligence on the part of adults in the situation.

If anything, this swimming pool accident only underscores the importance of maintaining pool safety rules at all times whenever there are kids involved. Without immediate emergency medical attention, Ruby could have had serious and long-term injuries. This little girl was lucky that she was attended to as soon as people around her noticed her signs of distress, and then revived her immediately. She received the emergency medical care she received, and those around her lost no time in rushing her to the hospital. Far too often, we hear of kids being fished out of swimming pools with no one having a clue as to how long they had been submerged in the water, or how they had drowned.

We’re thankful Ruby Fleetwood is on her way to being her old self again, and wish her a speedy and complete recovery.

The Reeves Law Group is a law firm with offices throughout California dedicated exclusively to the representation of personal injury victims, including victims of swimming pool accidents. Please visit our website at trlglaw.com. If you desire a free consultation on a personal injury matter, please call us at (800) 644-8000 or email us.

Investigations are still on in the swimming pool accident in Huron on Wednesday in which a 10-year-old girl drowned in a public pool. So far, there has been nothing more then speculation and gossip by way of information coming in, police officers handling the investigation say, and they are still far from getting to the bottom of the truth.

10-year-old Janet Ramirez who if she had lived, would have attended sixth grade this fall, was part of a group of children from the Keenan Recreation Center who had a swimming outing scheduled for the day. The child did not know how to swim, her parents say, but they felt safe when they found out she was going in the care of one of the adults at the center. Janet promised her parents she would stay at the shallow end of the Chestnut Park Pool, which is manned by lifeguards.

No one knows exactly how the swimming pool drowning happened, and there are all sorts of rumors flying around, including one that claims another child threw her in. Whatever the cause of the swimming pool accident, the most astonishing fact was that none of the lifeguards on duty even realized that there was a child drowning. In fact, it was only when panicked children began pointing to something at the bottom of the pool that was lying completely submerged and still, that people acted. It was only then that lifeguards – and there were four of them – at the pool, began performing CPR in a desperate attempt to revive her. She was transported to hospital where she was declared dead.

Janet was found at the deep end of the pool, and none of the people at the pool – not the lifeguards, or any of the several adults and kids who were present at the pool – have any idea how she got to the deep end of the pool.

Janet’s father claims that several kids told him that she had been thrown into the deep end by one of the other children. Even if this was the case, the lifeguards should have been able to spot the commotion, and been alerted as to what was going on. Blaming the parents in this tragedy is absurd. They had a valid reason for allowing her to be near a pool – she was being accompanied by a supervisor from the recreation center. Plus, the fact that there were a total of four lifeguards at any time at the pool should provide comfort to a parent.

Not any more apparently. It’s astounding how four people who have been certified as lifeguards and have passed all qualification criteria for that post, absolutely failed to notice even the slightest splash when Janet began to drown. Janet’s drowning has taken on the shades of a mystery, with almost every one at the pool completely clueless about what happened.

There really is no mystery here. It’s obvious that a child’s safety was taken very carelessly at this swimming pool, and that is what caused this tragic swimming pool drowning. Pool management says that they have never had a single drowning accident in their 37 years of operating the center. Perhaps, this gave all concerned, including the lifeguards, reason to be complacent? Time will tell.

The Reeves Law Group is a law firm with offices throughout California dedicated exclusively to the representation of personal injury victims, including victims of swimming pool accidents. Please visit our website at trlglaw.com. If you desire a free consultation on a personal injury matter, please call us at (800) 644-8000 or email us.

The father of a five-year-old autistic girl who was found drowned in the swimming pool of an after school program has filed a lawsuit that seeks unspecified damages. The child, Anya Glossinger, who was blind and autistic, was found drowned at a pool here she was undergoing hydrotherapy at a facility in Desert Springs California. She was found submerged, and rushed to hospital where she died a day later. Her mother says the girl did not know how to swim.

At the time of the pool accident, Anya was supposed to be under the care of workers from the United Cerebral Palsy Dennis James Center. The Riverside County Distinct Attorney’s Office refused to file criminal charges against those involved, but Anya’s mother Emily Weteschagin convinced them to consider corporate liability against the United Cerebral Palsy Dennis James Center in Cathedral City.

Emily is considering filing her own lawsuit in August. She is separated from Michael Grossinger, who is filing his lawsuit on his own.

After the pool accident, investigations by the Desert Springs Police concluded that the pool drowning was an accident. The Riverside County District Attorney’s Office too has claimed that the conduct of the workers who were supposed to be taking care of Anya was not criminal. The three workers who were in charge of Anya at the time of the pool accident are no longer working for United Cerebral Palsy Dennis James Center.

Gossinger’s lawsuit names all three workers, and is asking for punitive damages. To award punitive damages, the judge or jury will have to find reckless conduct on the part of the workers and the center. Glossinger has also filed a $10 million government claim against the California Department of Social Services, Palm Springs Unified, and United Cerebral Palsy of the Inland Empire. This is the preliminary step to a lawsuit against those public agencies and the agencies have 45 days in which to respond. Depending on the situation, they may be added to the list of defendants in Grossinger’s lawsuit, his attorney says.

There are no details about the police reports after the investigation into the pool accident, so we cannot make any assumptions about the facts here. But it seems like the facts played out in a straightforward manner. Three workers of the center were in charge of kids under their care at the hydrotherapy pool. When one of the kids drowns, it obviously happened because the workers were not paying as much attention as they should have been.

Anya was found submerged in the pool indicating that she had been left unsupervised for a while. This was a child with a severe mental condition, besides being legally blind. In short, this was a child you shouldn’t take your eyes off for even one second, especially with her in close proximity to water. It’s obvious that there was extreme negligence at play here.

Grossinger has done the right thing by filing a lawsuit against the parties responsible. When a criminal court can’t give you justice, a civil court can be a person’s only hope.

The Reeves Law Group is a law firm with offices throughout California dedicated exclusively to the representation of personal injury victims, including victims of pool accidents. Please visit our website at trlglaw.com. If you desire a free consultation on a personal injury matter, please call us at (800) 644-8000 or email us.

Soon after the pool accident that horribly disemboweled her, Abigail Taylor asked her father if she was going to be on television. When he asked her why, she reportedly told him that she would like to make sure that what happened to her wouldn’t happen to other kids. She got her wish – in December, President Bush signed a law that bans the distribution, sale and manufacture of drain covers that don’t meet entrapment safety standards, but Abigail didn’t live long enough to see the far reaching effects her case has had on swimming pool safety.

The 6-year-old died after a triple transplant surgery at Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha.

Life had been a never-ending series of surgeries after the horrible accident that occurred on June 29, 2006 at the Minneapolis Golf Club. Abigail was attending a graduation party and was playing in the wading pool. She got stuck on a suction drain that it turned out later had been left uncovered, the strong and powerful vacuum pinned her down. The suction was so powerful it sucked at least 21 feet of intestine out of the little girl.

So complete was the disembowelment Abigail lost the ability to digest food, and had to be fed pre-digested food directly. She lost a part of her liver and pancreas. Her injuries were so severe it’s a wonder she even survived as long as she did.

Last year Abigail’s parents filed lawsuits against the manufacturers of the pool drain, Sta-Rite Industries, as well as the Minneapolis Golf Club where this incident took place. Over the 19 months since the accident, her medical expenses have reached a staggering 30 million dollars. The amount is far more than the insurance amount that the club has. It could add up to more when you factor in pain and suffering of the little child.

Her parents have lobbied hard to force legislation for better safety measures in swimming pools. Pool safety measures have been in a state of limbo for many years, and over this time many cases of entrapment of clothes and hair in swimming pools have been reported, but no action was taken. It took one little girl’s tragic injuries to force lawmakers to act quickly. Why does a child have to be mutilated or die for us to act?

For at least one South Dakota family, the tragedy is a completely avoidable one. The Shubecks had their son Mike involved in similar accident 20 years ago, in which he lost a part of his small intestine. It’s unacceptable that accidents that occurred twenty years ago are allowed to be duplicated so many years later. As Paul Shubeck says, “This shouldn’t be happening. After 20 years and thousands of pool entrapments or hair entrapments and body part entrapments, and drownings and eviscerations, this shouldn’t be happening.”

This case has raised so many questions about pool safety – about why a wading pool with just a couple of feet of water had a suction strong enough to suck out a child’s bowels, and why a suction pump cover was left uncovered to begin with, and the numerous cases of pool entrapments that have caused so much suffering to parents and children around the country.

If you or a loved one have been injured or killed in a swimming pool related accident, you need the help of an experienced California personal injury lawyer. Contact an attorney at The Reeves Law Group for a free consultation.