LAS VEGAS, Nev. (FOX5) – The Southern Nevada Health District has revoked a lifeguard waiver from Las Vegas Athletic Clubs after a patron died in an indoor pool earlier this year.
After hearing an appeal from LVAC, the district confirmed that it had revoked the variance allowing the gym to monitor pool uses with video surveillance instead of an in-person lifeguard. SNHD highlighted video surveillance obtained from the gym.
During the incident, a customer could be seen in distress on the footage for around ten minutes, “kick erratically” and appearing to have trouble keeping their head up. They could also be seen “flailing, splashing, and rolling in the water” before floating motionless for another ten minutes.
Another customer would discover the body, and pull it out of the water before paramedics arrived. The customer would later be pronounced dead at the scene.
“If, as LVAC asserts, an employee was actively monitoring its pool camera feed throughout the incident, the video shows that LVAC’s active monitoring is incapable of protecting the health and safety of its pool users because it did not detect or respond to its customer’s need for aid,” an order from SNHD reads. “If instead LVAC was not actively monitoring the pool camera feed during this incident, which I conclude is more likely under the evidence here, LVAC violated the conditions of the variance and failed to prevent this public health and safety issue. In either case, revocation is proper.”
The district also says that LVAC refused to properly notify SNHD of the incident, as required by a regulation about drownings, near drownings, or any event involving a water rescue. However, LVAC asserts that this incident was not a drowning.
An official coroner report on the incident has yet to be released.
The gym received the waiver in 2020, though the district would later conclude that video monitoring was not a sufficient way to protect customers and failed to meet the requirements of the variance. SNHD said one other “serious” incident had occurred alongside the customer’s death, but did not provide details.
Following this action, several other local gyms affected by the revocation will resume operation under a lifeguard plan approved, or under review, by the Aquatic Health Program.
Those locations include the following:
- EōS Fitness
- 3325 E. Russell Rd., Las Vegas, NV 89120
- 8125 W. Sahara Ave. Ste. 100, Las Vegas, NV 89117
- 4520 N. Scott Robinson Blvd., North Las Vegas, NV 89031
- 3511 St. Rose Pkwy., Henderson, NV 89052
- UFC FIT (pending approval)
- 5651 Centennial Center Blvd, Las Vegas, NV 89149
The revocation will take effect on Monday, August 12.
LVAC has declined to comment on the order.
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