Source : http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Lifeguards+didn+anything+save+Montreal+girl+family+says/1912277/story.html
2009/8/22 Nicolas Mayer <[email protected]> > > MONTREAL – On the day 4-year-old Hila Zohar was buried, her family had > angry words for lifeguards who they say didn’t act quickly enough. > > Hila Zohar was found Tuesday afternoon at the bottom of the Côte St. Luc > municipal pool. She was taken off life-support on Wednesday. > > “I lost one of the most beautiful girls ever,” Hila’s mother, Edit Zohar, > said Thursday. > > Zohar said she believes the death could have been avoided if lifeguards at > the pool, on Mackle Rd. at the corner of Parkhaven Ave., had done their jobs > properly. > > “I’m very upset about the pool; about the way they act,” Zohar said. “They > were so scared, so panicked. They didn’t do anything.” > > Montreal police are investigating the drowning, but so far there is nothing > to suggest that something criminal occurred, Constable Olivier Lapointe > said. The Quebec coroner’s office is also investigating. > > Zohar was at the pool that day, but at the time of the incident wasn’t > close enough to see what happened. > > Zohar said the family got a phone call Thursday from a witness who said > Hila was pushed into the pool by another child with whom she had been > playing on the deck. > > Zohar said that according to the witness, the girl saw that Hila wasn’t > coming up to the surface, so she called her mother. She said the girl’s > mother pulled Hila’s lifeless body from the shallow end of the pool and > placed her on the pool deck. > > “She just left her there, and ran away because she was scared,” Zohar said. > “When the lifeguards saw a dead girl lying there, they evacuated the pool. > They stood around her for a few minutes and they didn’t do anything. I don’t > know when they decided to call 911.” > > Hila did not know how to swim. > > Zohar said lifeguards should have seen Hila fall in, and they should have > seen her at the bottom of the pool because it wasn’t as crowded as usual, > since it was a cloudy day. > > “She was being watched by a friend, but we didn’t worry so much because we > knew she wouldn’t go anywhere near the water,” Zohar said. “She’s terrified > of the water.” > > The family friend had apparently looked away for a few minutes because her > daughter lost a sandal. > > Zohar arrived at her daughter’s side after an alarm sounded to evacuate the > pool. > > Daycare worker Yaëlle Bouhana-Ostrofsky, 35, who was at the pool to pick up > her children, said she administered CPR to Hila because lifeguards were too > slow to act. > > “I got there and I heard screams, and I heard someone say, ‘She drowned.’ I > saw the girl lying on the ground, and nobody was giving her CPR,” > Bouhana-Ostrofsky said. > > “They were standing around, confused. ... They didn’t know what to do. > > “She was unconscious. She was white as a ghost. Her belly was up, probably > because of the water (that was inside).” > > She said one of the lifeguards helped roll Hila onto her side when she was > throwing up during CPR. > > David Taveroff, director of parks and recreation for Côte St. Luc, > presented a different version of events. “We now have witnesses that have > told us the staff performed CPR,” he said Thursday. > > Zohar estimates it took 20 minutes for an ambulance to arrive from the time > Hila was pulled out of the pool, in part because lifeguards didn’t call 911 > right away. > > Records from Urgences Santé, the public corporation that runs Montreal and > Laval’s ambulances, show a call came in at 5:21 p.m. and an ambulance > arrived at 5:33. Côte St. Luc volunteer first responders, who were alerted > by Urgences Santé, were at the pool by 5:24. They, too, administered CPR. > > *Ambulance workers reportedly administered adrenaline into the girl’s > heart, and succeeded in getting it to beat on its own, Urgences Santé > spokesperson Benoît Garneau said. He said paramedics try to respond to a > Priority 1 emergency within 10 minutes, but a 12-minute response time isn’t > worrisome.* > > “It was a reasonable time, considering the high number of calls we had at > that time,” Garneau said. “It’s bit longer than usual, but you can’t forget > that we work with first responders, who were there (quickly).” > > Eti Ohayon, a friend of the Zohars, said that when paramedics tried to take > Hila away on a stretcher through the pool’s back gate, they were delayed > because pool staff could not find the key to unlock it. > > Zohar said she could not control herself as she watched people administer > first aid to her daughter. > > “I panicked,” she said. “I was screaming, and I was screaming so much that > one of the police officers took me by force and brought me to one of the > rooms of the pool.” > > Reached in Wisconsin, where he was attending a business meeting, Côte St. > Luc Mayor Anthony Housefather said Thursday the incident is under > investigation, but that he believes the lifeguards acted professionally. > > “Our staff is highly trained,” he said. “Every staff is required to have > National Lifeguard certification, which is not the case in many pools on the > island.” > > Housefather said that for the rest of the summer, the pool will increase > the number of lifeguards on duty. In addition, the pool’s manager and the > city’s manager of recreation will also be on the pool deck “for the next > while,” Housefather said. > > “We’re doing this to reassure people,” he said. “I don’t want people to > think Côte St. Luc’s pool is unsafe. It’s just as safe as any pool on the > island.” > > He said that before the drowning, the city received few complaints about > safety at the pool. > > “I don’t think it’s fair, until I have done my investigation, to conclude > that the lifeguards aren’t doing their job. It’s just not right,” he said. > > Housefather said the city has called in grief counsellors to work with the > staff; he also conveyed his sympathies to the Zohar family. > > Bouhana-Ostrofsky isn’t reassured about the pool’s safety. “I’ll never send > my kids back to that pool,” she said. > > Hila was treated at Ste. Justine Hospital, but was mostly brain-dead by the > time she was admitted. > > About 150 people attended Hila’s funeral Thursday afternoon at Paperman & > Sons funeral home. > > The Côte St. Luc pool was open Wednesday, but Housefather it was closed > Thursday afternoon out of respect for Hila. > > Ohayon said the family is hoping to speak with the mother of the child who > reportedly pushed Hila in the pool. They are asking anyone who saw the > incident to come forward. > > Meanwhile, an 11-year-old girl was fished out of the bottom of a municipal > pool in Longueuil about 1:30 p.m. > > The girl is visiting from Haiti and staying with family in the area. After > she dove in and hadn’t come back up after slightly less than a minute, a > lifeguard brought her up to the pool deck. She had a weak pulse and was > having difficulty breathing, so lifeguards performed CPR. > > The girl was breathing on her own and doing better by the time an ambulance > arrived. As of 3 p.m., she was declared out of danger, said Longueuil police > Constable Dominic Arseneault. > > [email protected] > © Copyright (c) The Montreal Gazette >
