Las Vegas gym where woman drowned faces wrongful death suit

The family of 58-year-old Leticia Triplett allege the Las Vegas Athletic Clubs were negligent and should be financially responsible for the woman’s death, according to a complaint filed on Wednesday in District Court.

Southern Nevada Health District officials and the operator of seven full-service, 24-hour gyms in the Las Vegas Valley have been going back and forth for months over whether LVAC and others are required to have lifeguards monitoring their pools. In June, the health district ruled that LVAC and other gyms are required to have the lifeguards, citing, in part, Triplett’s death.

Representatives of LVAC did not respond to requests for comment by publication time.

According to the lawsuit, Triplett swam in the pool at LVAC’s 6050 N. Decatur Blvd. location on Feb. 4 when she began to struggle in the water for about 10 minutes.

It took another 10 minutes until another LVAC member noticed and pulled her out. She was pronounced dead at the scene.

The drowning was captured on gym surveillance video.

‘Permanently staffed’ pool surveillance

SNHD established new aquatic regulations based on Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advice in 2019, according to the suit. The regulations required lifeguards, but allowed for the possibility of remote monitoring as a supplement to in-person lifeguards.

In April 2020, the gym operator received the OK from health officials for remote surveillance through a closed-circuit feed, without lifeguards at its pools, the complaint states. In the gym’s safety plan provided to SNHD, it said it would permanently staff a dedicated camera feed for the pool.

“Despite being granted the variance to operate its pools without lifeguards, LVAC systematically failed to comply and violated the variance,” the plaintiff’s attorney wrote in the suit.

The complaint also alleges pools at three other locations were closed at various points in 2022 for failing to comply with the conditions of the variance.

During a March 1 inspection after Triplett’s death, a health district inspector found LVAC had no one monitoring the dedicated pool camera at the gym, according to the complaint.

“Instead of being ‘permanently staffed’ as required by the variance, the inspector saw a single front desk clerk checking the monitor only twice in ten minutes between helping customers,” attorneys wrote in the complaint.

The lawsuit alleges that gym management failed to timely notify the health department of Triplett’s death, resulting in the “deletion of critical evidence, specifically video surveillance of the front desk area where the dedicated camera feed was supposed to have been permanently staffed.”

Closed pools

The wrongful death suit, filed by Kristopher Helmick and Kirill Mikhaylov of Pacific West Injury Law, comes a week after LVAC closed its pools indefinitely, citing the health district’s ruling.

Health officials and gym leaders say they are still meeting to agree on a new safety plan — one that includes lifeguards.

This is not the only civil case related to the February drowning.

In June, LVAC sued the health district over the changed lifeguard policy.

That lawsuit is ongoing.

Contact McKenna Ross at mross@reviewjournal.com. Follow @mckenna_ross_ on X.