Family's fury as woman, 22, dies in gym bathroom after male employee 'refuses to enter female locker room'
By DAILY MAIL REPORTER
A 22-year-old woman died in a New York gym bathroom after a male employee refused to enter, a lawsuit claims.
Emily Hamlin, 22, slumped to the floor in the toilets of Planet Fitness following an early-morning workout in February 2012. Her collapse in the locker room at the Bay Shore gym was witnessed by fellow gym member, Stephanie Dick. 'I heard [a] flush, then a thud,' Ms Dick, recalled in a sworn affidavit, reported the New York Post. 'I saw a woman’s arm drop to the floor, followed immediately by a loud snoring sound.'
Ms Dick said she ran to the front desk to get help and spoke to gym employee Sean Higgins. 'He said he didn’t know what to do and that he wasn’t allowed to go into the ladies’ bathroom,' Ms Dick said in her sworn affidavit. Ms Dick said Mr Higgins was frozen to the spot and looked 'scared and confused.' She claimed Mr Higgins said that he was the only person working and that a girl was due to being her shift, although he was not sure when.
'I want to know why no one helped her!' said Miss Hamlin’s mother, Jeanine, 52.
Ms Dick’s statement is part of a wrongful-death suit Miss Hamlin’s family is set to file in Suffolk County Supreme Court this week against the gym owners and Higgins.
Video footage from the gym obtained by Hamlin family lawyer Scott Charnas shows Higgins eventually picked up the phone to dial 911 - 4 1/2 minutes after learning of Ms Hamlin’s collapse.
Planet Fitness employee, Kristin Smith, arrived and 'immediately' checked Hamlin’s pulse.
She found it 'weak', Mr Charnas told the New York Post.
Mr Charnas alleged that Smith knows CPR but did not perform it.
Miss Hamlin was pronounced dead at 6:03 a.m.
A Planet Fitness lawyer sent a letter to Mr Charnas saying the gym is not liable for Hamlin’s death.
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