Town sued over “camp” near drowning

Many community recreation programs have summer camps for the kids in their community. These camps are not the pack a trunk and go to the woods, but a program where the kids are entertained and energized through part or all of the summer in the local recreation program. They may take field trips, but they usually spend every night in their own beds at home. It is a cheap, sometimes free way for parents to not worry about their kids or hire someone to watch them while they work.

Most of these programs have some type of swimming/water activity. In this case the program allowed swimming as part of its program. There were allegedly six counselors, one assistant counselor and five lifeguards on duty when a camper nearly drowned during this program. The camper now suffers from serious brain injury and his parents have sued the town and many of the counselors.

There is an interesting discussion in the article about why the plaintiff sued the individual counselors. Probably because the town that ran the camp has governmental immunity defenses that the individuals do not. However, as an employee, the town is providing the defense of the individual counselors in this action. Again this is a review of a lawsuit by a non-lawyer, being interpreted by a lawyer so the facts are very confusing.

First remember that an injury like this is expensive. There is no way that you can have enough health insurance to cover all of the medical costs. Usually insurance stops, at some point and the home care costs start to rise. This looks like a forever financial nightmare. You cannot buy disability insurance on a minor. To some extent you can understand the reasons for the lawsuit from a financial perspective. The cost to this family in dollars is never going to end.

The emotional cost is also unlimited.

What struck me as tragic, as of these cases are and at the same time very interesting is the statement released by the family.

“On behalf of our son, we have filed a lawsuit because, despite the best efforts of so many dedicated physicians, therapists, and teachers, Chandler has been left with a serious brain injury that affects him every day. This injury was preventable and occurred because of the negligence of people to whom we had entrusted our son.

“However, we are grateful for the support that our family has received from the community in Redding and regret the fact that all of the persons named in our suit needed to be defendants as we had hoped that the town would have accepted responsibility for its employees and this tragic event.

“We understand that the town reviewed and revised its procedures at Topstone after Chandler was injured and that the state of Connecticut has recently undertaken a review of the procedures at all state parks as well. We sincerely hope that these steps prevent another young child from nearly drowning,”

This press release was not written by a grieving family. A few of the lines seem to indicate they had some input into the press release. But overall it just does not sound like what parents of a severely injured young boy would say.

This press release is what occurs when attorneys get involved. Obviously they were involved quite early from the way the article describes the facts. What we don’t know but can surmise is why the attorneys were involved so early. The parents wanted to know what happened. Towns, cities, governmental entities always have risk managers and attorneys and probably the family was stonewalled. Probably the only answers they received were from the police investigation.

If you had a loved one severely injured you probably would want to talk to someone about what happened. If you had a child injured you would want to know what happened. I suspect that this family will never really find out.

However from previous articles you can clearly see the handiwork of several years of law school versus no lawyers in the case. This is a no win situation for everyone.

Marx family is suing town over near drowning