Florida Gym Not Liable for Lack of Defibrillator

When 52-year-old Michael DeLibero went into cardiac arrest while exercising on a cardiovascular machine at Q The Sports Club in Coral Springs, it took paramedics just seven minutes to respond to the 911 call.

DeLibero was taken to the hospital, where he survived but suffered severe brain damage from lack of oxygen. He and his family sued the health club for negligence, arguing that the facility should have had an automated external defibrillator on the premises so that his treatment could have begun before the paramedics arrived.

But a Broward Circuit Court jury did not agree. Early this month, the jury found that Q The Sports Club and 24 Hour Fitness USA, a San Ramon, Calif.-based fitness chain which purchased Q The Sports Club prior to DeLibero's cardiac arrest, were not liable for not having an AED on hand.

Q The Sports Club also faced allegations in the suit that it failed to properly pre-screen DeLibero prior to granting him membership in 1997. The jury was hung on that count.

The DeLibero family's attorney, Howard Pomerantz, of Abramowitz & Pomerantz in Sunrise, said he is currently negotiating with Q The Sports Club on that count. And he said he plans to appeal the defense verdict on the other counts.

AEDs are computerized devices that monitor a person's heart rhythm, recognize when a heart needs to be shocked and verbally instruct a rescuer when that shock needs to be administered. According to the American Heart Association, the devices were created to be used by individuals near the victim, prior to the arrival of emergency response personnel.

The defense argued that when DeLibero went into cardiac arrest in December 2000, there was no industry standard or organizational mandate that fitness centers must have AEDs, Michael Mullen, the attorney for Q The Sports Club and Q Clubs Inc., said in an interview.

Mullen, of Gaebe Mullen Antonelli Esco & Dimatteo in Coral Gables, argued that AEDs were little known to the public at the time of DeLibero's cardiac arrest. "If I asked you what an AED was back in December of 2000, you would have thought it was an AIDS virus," Mullen said. "Now everyone knows what it is."

Judge Miette Burnstein had separated the liability and damage phases of the case upon the motion of 24 Hour Fitness' attorney, Joel Adler, a partner at Marlow Connell Valerius Abrams Adler Newman Lewis & Blevins in Coral Gables, so the jury never heard evidence of damages.

Adler could not be reached for comment.

In an interview after the verdict, Pomerantz contended that health clubs should have the proper equipment to help their members in case they have a heart attack or other life-threatening incident. If the club had had an AED, DeLibero would have had a better chance to fully recover.

He cites the American Heart Association's Internet site, which states that "early CPR and defibrillation within the first three to five minutes after a collapse can result in high (greater than 50 percent) long-term survival rates."

In 2002, the American College of Sports Medicine and the American Heart Association wrote a joint position paper stating that health and fitness centers should have AEDs.

Helen Durkin, director of public policy for the International Health, Racquet & Sportsclub Association in Boston, said seven states, including California and New York, currently have legislation requiring fitness centers to have AEDs.

Several cities also have established this requirement, including Weston and Coral Springs. The Coral Springs fitness center where DeLibero was stricken now has one.

But in December 2000, Durkin said, no states had such a requirement.

Pomerantz said that during a five-year period, there have been more than 1,000 reports of people suffering from potential cardiac-related incidents at either Q The Sports Club or 24 Hour Fitness.

He said there are several lawsuits pending around the country based on the failure of fitness clubs to have AEDs to resuscitate members. u