A 21-year-old student who collapsed and died late at night at a city centre gym would probably not have been saved even if the gym had been fully staffed and paramedics reached him more quickly, a coroner ruled. Coroner Dr Peter Harrowing recorded that Henry Best died of natural causes after he collapsed suffering a cardiac arrest at the Pure Gym in Bristol on the evening of January 10 this year.
Dr Harrowing heard that Pure Gym had ‘learned lessons’ and made changes to the way their gyms operate late in the evening after Henry's death, reports BristolLive.
Henry Best was teetota, and a fit, healthy and active music student who helped run swimming lessons for primary school children and went to the gym regularly. The inquest heard he was a popular young man and talented musician.
The inquest heard the 21-year-old student collapsed from a pre-existing but previously undiagnosed heart condition around an hour into a workout at the gym with his girlfriend Holly Jones. They had gone to the gym together at around 10.30pm that evening and Mr Best collapsed in a room on the fourth floor of the building.
The inquest heard paramedics arrived outside the front of the gym at 11.35pm, but took another six minutes to reach him. The inquest heard Holly dialled 999 immediately and, under the instruction of the emergency call handlers, administered CPR to Henry for 10 minutes before paramedics took over.
The member of staff on the premises was a first-aid trained cleaner. The gym, which operates unstaffed through the night, has an emergency button in most rooms and corridors, signs with a phone number to connect to a central operations room and there was a defibrillator on the same floor as the room where Henry collapsed.
The inquest heard that when paramedics arrived, they could not initially get into the building and had to phone the emergency number on the door to connect to the control centre to gain access, and once inside, walked around calling out trying to find Mr Best, even phoning back to ask if they were in the right place.
The inquest heard the cleaner had gone into a cleaning cupboard and had been wearing headphones. CCTV showed the cleaner left the cleaning cupboard and continued working - unaware of the medical emergency
Dr Harrowing said that, on the balance of probabilities, the lack of a member of staff present in the room with Mr Best did not change the outcome.
Becky Randel, for Pure Gym, said Pure Gym had learned lessons and made changes to the way their gyms operate at night and said they no longer classified a gym as being ‘staffed’ if there was just a cleaner on site. In that circumstance, the procedures for the gym being ‘unstaffed’ were activated, including Tannoy announcements, signs and messages on screens advising users that the gym was unstaffed.
Dr Harrowing said: “I agree there were some issues relating to staffing but on the balance of probabilities, it wasn’t causative or contributory to the death of Mr Best. Changes have been made I do not consider it necessary to make recommendations. I welcome the actions taken by Pure Gym in this respect."
