Body found in gym pool
AN INVESTIGATION has been launched after a man drowned at a Wakefield gym.
The gym said yesterday that the member of staff on duty at the poolside was not a lifeguard – and it was another gym user who raised the alarm.
John Heaton, 38, has worked as a personal trainer at the gym for the past two-and-a-half years.
He said: "I was upstairs and I saw staff running through to the pool area with the defibrillator.
"I went to see if any more first aiders were needed, and saw them doing CPR on him.
"It was awful because there were children having swimming lessons in the small pool at the time and it wasn't nice for them to see.
"I'm not sure what happened, it looks like the man might have had a heart attack or something."
The man was believed to be in his 40s.
Gym member Alex Reid, 31, said: "Everyone is really shocked. It's awful. You just don't expect something like this to happen.
"One of the personal trainers pulled him out and he seemed really shaken up about it. The police shut the gym off and seemed to be taking it very seriously.
"I don't think anyone had noticed anything was wrong until the woman pointed him out."
A spokesman for Total Fitness said desperate attempts were made by staff to save the man in the 10 minutes before paramedics
arrived.
The spokesman said: "Four staff members immediately attended to the man and CPR was administered along with two shocks from our defibrillator.
"Regretfully, nothing our attendants did could save the man.
"We were alerted by a woman using the gym. In keeping with the company policy of always having at least one member of staff supervising poolside, a club attendant was present at the time of the incident.
"We extend our deepest sympathies to his family."
Health and safety officials from the council's environmental health department are now investigating the incident alongside the police.
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Weather for Wakefield
Thursday 09 February 2012
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