My Child was Injured at the Pool, Do I Have Any Claim?
Your Child Was Injured at the Pool, Now What?
This time of years the days are longer, the nights are shorter, and our kids are hoping spending most of that time outside in the sunshine. A hallmark summertime spot for families all over is the pool. Whether your child swims competitively or just enjoys the water, the pool a great place to cool down, have fun, and tucker out the little ones.
But what if something happened?
What if your child gets injured at the pool?
Do you have any claims?
The answer is, it depends. Let’s dive into what your first steps in the situation should be and how to go about proving negligence (if there is any to be proved).
Injured at the Pool: First Steps
If you’re at the pool and notice your child has been injured, your first instinct should be to assess how bad the injury is and whether or not they need emergency care. If there are lifeguards present they should help and take over necessary medical help until EMT’s arrive. If there is no lifeguard and your child isn’t breathing, administer CPR.
Next, take note of your surroundings. Are there are other parents or children injured or in danger of being hurt? Is there anyone of anything directly causing this harm?
Documentation is key. If you see something negligent such as a broken pipe, slippery side walk, or anything else, take a picture. This could help you later in your case.
Whether or not your child’s injuries require immediate attention, it’s important to get to the doctor as soon as possible. This is helpful in two ways: It helps ensure your child’s injuries are tended to in a timely manner, while also creating a medical record that your child’s injuries were sustained at the pool.
Establishing Negligence
Establishing negligence with recreational injuries like swimming can be less straightforward than with other personal injury claims in that negligence for recreational injuries must fall outside the normal scope of risk for the activities you or your child are doing at the time of injury.
For example, if your child is swimming and accidentally hits their head on the bottom of the pool and suffers a head injury, there may not be a worthy case.
However, if your child trips over a damaged poolside grate, that has been complained about multiple times, and suffers and injury, you may have a worthy claim. Negligence in this case could fall upon the facility for not assessing and fixing damaged and dangerous property after being warned several times about possible consequences.
In personal injury claims such as this is can be extremely helpful to have a personal injury firm such as EPIC in your corner. Our experienced team will help fight to get you the compensation you need.
If your child was injured at the pool, let Evergreen Personal Injury Council help.