Child Injured at a Hotel Pool? What Parents in Massachusetts and New England Should Know

When choosing a vacation destination, surveys indicate that many American families consider access to a pool to be among the top amenities a hotel, resort, or other such property can offer. Pools may be particularly attractive to parents with young children, as a pool can keep the kids entertained while the adults relax in the same environment.

However, while it’s not something any parent likes to think about or imagine, it is possible for a child to be injured while using a hotel pool.

Has this happened to your child in Massachusetts or any of the other New England states?

Depending on whether the child’s injury resulted from another party’s negligence, you may be eligible to receive compensation for your child’s medical bills and related losses.

Seeking the compensation for which you may be eligible can typically involve filing an insurance claim with the insurer of the liable party. If the insurance company won’t cooperate and offer a fair settlement, you have the option of filing a lawsuit to pursue damages in court.

Reviewing your case with a professional is the best way to learn more about your options. However, the following overview will provide a general rundown of the ways children may be injured at hotel pools, what you should do if this ever happens to your child, and what your legal options may be in these circumstances.

How Children May Sustain Injuries While Using Hotel or Resort Pools

There should be properly trained staff who supervise and respond to incidents when they occur, as time is of the essence should an incident occur.The following are among the more common examples of types of incidents:

• Drownings, which are particularly common among very young children and those with limited swimming experience
• Injuries resulting from exposure to harmful chemicals that hotels and resorts may use when treating their pools
• Electrocution accidents
• Accidents involving pool suction mechanisms or other such pool components, including drains
• Head and neck injuries and that can occur when diving in or near shallow water
• Slip and fall injuries that can occur in a pool area on wet surfaces

This is not an exhaustive list. Even if the specific way in which your child was injured isn’t mentioned above, that doesn’t necessarily mean you don’t have grounds to seek compensation.

What to Do if Your Child Is Injured at a Hotel Pool

Ensuring your child receives proper medical attention should be your top priority after they’ve been injured at a pool or similar setting.

Be aware that some types of injuries might not present noticeable symptoms right away. For example, a child may sustain a concussion and not experience symptoms until hours or even days later. Thus, it’s always best to err on the side of caution and seek medical care whenever your child has been involved in an incident that theoretically could have resulted in injury.

Seeing a doctor right away ensures your child receives prompt attention, which can play a significant role in their recovery.

In addition, you have to understand that should you decide to seek compensation, insurance companies will typically look for ways to justify limiting the compensation they offer (or not offering any compensation at all).

If you don’t seek fast medical care for your child, it may be difficult to establish a clear link between their injuries and the incident that occurred at the hotel pool. As such, the insurance company could try to avoid paying you by suggesting that there’s not enough evidence to prove that the incident in question caused your child’s injuries. The insurance company may argue it’s possible your child was injured in an unrelated incident.

Along with making sure your child sees a doctor, you should take the following steps after they’ve been injured at a hotel pool:

• Contact an employee and ask to file an incident report
• Document the conditions at the scene that may have contributed to your child’s injuries by taking pictures and videos
• Get the names and contact information of any witnesses at the scene

Some witnesses may be willing to provide recorded statements immediately after your child was injured. Over time, a witness’s memory of an incident can naturally fade. Their statements may carry more weight during settlement negotiations if their statements were recorded in a timely manner, however it is best to coordinate contacts with such witnesses through your attorney.

It’s also important to take care in providing information for an incident report. Remember that such reports will be used as evidence in any claims pursued.

Proving Negligence in a Hotel Child Pool Injury Case

The liable party responsible for providing compensation when a child is injured at a hotel pool is often the company that runs the hotel or resort itself. There are various ways in which this party’s negligence can theoretically contribute to a child’s injuries. They include:

• Failing to employ trained lifeguards
• Not having lifeguards on duty when necessary
• Not properly maintaining the pool
• Misusing pool chemicals
• Storing pool chemicals improperly

Gathering evidence to prove negligence may require conducting a thorough investigation. Investigating your child’s accident is just one way our team at Swartz & Swartz, P.C. can help during this difficult time.

You don’t have to face this process alone. At our Massachusetts personal injury law firm handling child hotel pool injury cases, we can review your case and offer aggressive representation should we decide to work together. Learn more by contacting us online today or calling us at (617) 742-1900 to set up your free consultation.

Need Help?

If you or someone you know, needs help from a lawyer, contact the law offices of Swartz & Swartz, use our live chat, or send us a message using the form below and we’ll get in touch to assess your case and how we can help.