Catastrophic Brain Injury After Near Drowning
A family has filed a lawsuit against a swimming pool for inadequate lifeguard cover when their 7-year-old son nearly drowned leaving him with a “catastrophic brain injury.” Chad Mole was found lifeless with blue lips on October 18, 2005. He was revived but suffered a severe hypopoxic brain injury that has left him severely disabled. An inquiry was made under a Health and Safety Act that subsequently brought a charge to the owners and operators of the swimming pool. Attorney for the family claim the pool’s owners failed to ensure that Chad was kept safe by the lack of oversight and lifeguard coverage. In an opening statement the attorney told the jury, “The case you are about to hear concerns a very near drowning at Trecco Bay. It was caused, the Crown say, in simple terms by this company not having a proper system of work, not having sufficient lifeguards on duty, not having lifeguards clearly observing these people and not having a system where people would react properly when they saw a young boy in a dangerous part of the pool. As a result of that failure, we say that young Chad Mole, seven years of age, very, very nearly drowned. His life was saved but he will forever have a catastrophic brain injury which has severely disabled him.”
