Parents of teen who drowned last spring sue city, lifeguards

The parents of a 14-year-old boy who died after being found at the bottom of a public swimming pool are suing the City of Winnipeg and four lifeguards.

Cindy Paul and Jason Sereda claim the defendants caused the drowning of their son, Adam Sereda-Paul, by being negligent and failing to provide a duty of care to him at the Cindy Klassen Recreation Complex.

“When people go to swimming pools… parents entrust their children to reasonably skilled guarding, and there has to be a proper complement of guards to safeguard the children of our community, and any swimmer in our community,” the parents’ lawyer, Martin Pollock, told the Free Press Monday.

“Clearly, the family felt failed — miserably failed — by those who were in charge. The death of this boy should not have happened, period.”

Paul and Sereda claim their son and the West End pool’s dive tank weren’t adequately supervised or guarded while he used the facility April 1, 2024, which was Easter Monday.

The lawsuit, filed in Manitoba’s Court of King’s Bench Aug. 21, is seeking damages on behalf of Adam’s parents, sister and grandparents.

The parents have suffered nervous shock, post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and other issues, while Paul has been unable to work and has a fear of visiting recreational pools, the suit said.

The lifeguards were not named in the 20-page document. Their names are not known to the plaintiffs.

The teenager, who visited the pool with his mother, followed the facility’s rules and regulations, and complied with instructions from staff, his parents said.

He was allowed to enter the dive tank after he completed a swimming competency test, the lawsuit said.

Two guards rotated off deck about 10 minutes later, leaving one guard on deck from 4 p.m. to 4:30 p.m., the plaintiffs allege.

One guard saw Adam jump off a diving platform several times into the tank, where he was the only swimmer except for two others who briefly jumped into the water and left, the parents claim.

Adam’s family described him as an avid swimmer who started using the platforms that weekend.

His mother watched him from a viewing gallery, where she had a blind spot to the near side of the tank, the lawsuit said.

Her son, a Churchill High School student, was out of the water when she went to a washroom at about 4:11 p.m. She believed he was going back for another jump and was under the watchful eye of lifeguards.

Paul did not see her son in the dive tank when she returned to the gallery at 4:18 p.m., so she sent a text message to his cellphone, receiving no response.

During a guard rotation at the shallow end at 4:30 p.m., a briefing indicated the dive tank “remained clear of use to remain one guard on deck,” the lawsuit said.

Paul didn’t get a response when she phoned her son at 4:34 p.m.

About six minutes later, a guard walked to the deep end and saw Adam in a corner at the bottom of the Sargent Avenue pool. An emergency alarm was activated.

Adam was unconscious and not breathing when two guards retrieved him from a depth of 4.1 metres. Paul went down to the pool deck after the alarm sounded. She phoned Adam’s father and told him to come to the pool.

Both parents watched lifeguards and paramedics attempt lifesaving measures on their son. They were with him when he was pronounced dead at Children’s Hospital.

The lawsuit accuses lifeguards of failing to concentrate and focus on Adam, and “relaxing and/or abandoning the duty to be watchful.”

The plaintiffs said the city did not have an adequate number of lifeguards on deck, and allowed the dive tank to be guarded from “too great” a distance.

They accused the city of employing lifeguards who lacked the appropriate skill level, and failing to institute a safe system of guarding.

The statement of claim said the pool deck’s emergency alarm and radio were not in proper working order, and the city did not have proper automated external defibrillator procedures nor a cardiopulmonary resuscitation order.

The allegations have not been tested in court.

A spokeswoman for the city, which has not yet filed a statement of defence, said it does not comment on active legal matters.

Pollock said it has been a devastating experience for Adam’s parents.

“This is a community safety issue where diligence and prudence are so very important,” he said. “The city needs to take a good, hard look at the harm that has been caused to this family.”

The city’s internal post-incident analysis, obtained by the Free Press in February, cited a delay in calling 911, an emergency alarm that took several attempts to activate, and a radio that wasn’t in working order.

There was confusion about CPR protocols and uncertainty about differences between AED procedures for adults and children, the analysis found.

Adam’s death prompted changes in a bid to improve safety at city pools. The city said in February the minimum number of lifeguards on deck was increased to two at all times, exceeding provincial legislation’s minimum of one-to-30 swimmers.

Adam’s parents are seeking damages under the Fatal Accidents Act. The act limits damages to $30,000 per parent and $10,000 to other family members, plus an adjustment for inflation.

The lawsuit is seeking special damages for funeral expenses and professional counselling, and Paul’s loss of income, as well as court costs from the defendants.

chris.kitching@freepress.mb.ca