A lifeguard at the Country Club Hotel, Dubai who left a pool unattended for 15 minutes and returned to find a drowned guest has been sentenced to one month in prison and fined AED 2000 (US $544) reports The National newspaper.
The Filipino lifeguard, aged 31, is reported to have left the pool to get more towels and when he returned was informed by two children that a swimmer was lying motionless at the bottom of the pool. The lifeguard’s attempts to resuscitate the man were unsuccessful and he was eventually taken to Rashid Hospital where he died two days later.
The incident, which took place on July 22, 2012, was witnessed by two brothers from Belgium aged 14 and 11 who reported the accident and saw the victim swimming in the pool before climbing out. "About a minute later he dived back in, but he did not come up again and just remained on the bottom motionless," the elder brother is reported to have said.
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The lifeguard was reported to have seen the victim, Ignatius Joseph aged 38 from India, at the pool before and that he appeared to be a strong swimmer.
The victim’s wife is reported by the paper to have said: "We had a membership to the swimming pool but only my husband used it. He went to swim because he was feeling depressed because he had recently been made unemployed."
She said her husband suffered from diabetes but rarely took his medicine, insisting he would use sport to keep the condition under control. He learnt to swim about a month before his death.
His widow told the court she did not think there was any negligence by hotel staff and that she assumed her husband had suffered a heart attack.
The Misdemeanours Court found the lifeguard guilty on a charge of causing death and he will be deported after serving the term of his sentence.
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