Chinese couple to sue Aquatic Centre over son's death

A couple from China plans to sue the Canada Games Aquatic Centre for negligence over the possible drowning death of their teenaged son last year.

Yifan (Jason) Wang had just moved to Saint John as an international student when he went to the centres pool with some friends on Sept. 18 for the public swim.

Its still unclear what happened, but the 17-year-old waspulled from the poolunresponsive anddied two days laterin the intensive care unit at the Saint John Regional Hospital.

A year is too long to wait for answersparticularly when it involves a public pool, says Rod Gillis, who is representing the teens parents, who live in China and dont speak English.

"This was, what appeared to be a person in a good state of health, with no explanation as to what took place," said Gillis.

He contends there should be a coroners inquest.

"Because of the public concern, there really should have been an inquest some time ago to allow the public to understand what was right, what was wrong," Gillis said.

No head injury

Hospital charts showed no sign of facial or head trauma, he said.

That "would lead us to believe initially that it wasn't a question of hitting the bottom, or hitting the side and knocking himself out.

"This individual did drown. And the mechanism of how it happened, how long it took to happen, what took place by way of observation of somebody struggling in the water for awhile, why he was left under the water so long. When he was actually pulled out, was any resuscitation done? If not, why not?

"There's an awful lot of questions that are yet to be answeredand we will get the answers at some time," he said.

The lawsuit will help force the disclosure of records related to the case, said Gillis.

A coroners report has not yet been released.

Hehas also requested the Aquatic Centre's surveillance tapes, as well as any records about lifeguard staffing and training, buthas not yet received a response, he said.

Gillis is "not impressed.

"This is a public centre with paid admission where children go and you expect, as a parent, to have them watched over and taken care of. And if theres a deficiency, it should have been addressed long ago."

Any recommendations from a coroners inquest jury could help prevent future deaths at pools across the province, he said.

Procedures followed

The chair of the Aquatic Centres commission, Colleen Kemp Mitchell, said the commission has co-operated with every request from the coroner's office.

But she declined an interview until after the coroners report is released.

Department of Public Safety officials could not say when that might be.

Wangs death was the first incident of its type in the Aquatic Centre's 26-year history.

At the time, then-commission chair Leo Maloney told CBC News the correct number of lifeguards were on duty, and correct procedures were followed.

Safety is a "core value" of the facility, he had said.

Asked if there should be a coroners inquest, he had said yes.

Maloney said there were six lifeguards working that day, as well as two supervisors and the pool was not as busy as normal, with only about 60 people, compared to the usual couple of hundred.

One of the lifeguards saw Wang underwater and motionless and signalled to two nearby lifeguards who put Wang on the deck on the bulkhead.

They called 911 and did CPR until paramedics took over and transportedWang to hospital.

Maloney said they knew where they found Wang, when they found him and in what condition, but didn't know what happened, or why it happened.

Security cameras did not pick up anything in the pool, he had said.