Florida Lifeguard Fired for Trying to Save Drowning Man Outside of His Zone

[Bozita]

Source: ABC News

Florida Lifeguard Fired for Trying to Save Drowning Man Outside of His Zone
By ALEXIS SHAW
July 4, 2012


A Florida lifeguard has been booted from his lifeguard chair for running to save a man who was floundering in the surf.

Tomas Lopez , 21, was fired by his supervisor for vacating his lifeguarding zone to save a man drowning in an unprotected area of the beach in Hallandale Beach, Fla., on Monday, reports the Sun Sentinel.

Lopez' employer is not paid to patrol the zone where the man had been in trouble.

According to the Sun Sentinel, Lopez was approached by a beachgoer who pointed out a man struggling in the water nearly 1,500 feet south of his post.




Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/US/florida-lifeguard-fired-rescue-attempt/story?id=16711655#.T_SUYhwkBBA

[Comrade Grumpy]

1. The supervisor deserves an asshole award.

[Blue_Tires]

4. true, but in his sort-of defense

almost all these bullshit "rules" evolve from some crazy lawsuit in the past...And it being Florida, I can only imagine what those lawyers can come up with

[jberryhill]

7. Not really

Most of these "lawsuit voodoo" rules are made up by people who utterly miss the point of some prior lawsuit, or otherwise fail to understand the law.

These distorted and foolish notions of potential liability are promoted by insurance companies to justify their insane profits.

[Posteritatis]

13. Yeah, it's more about people brainstorming about what they might get sued for

End result is stuff like this, or kids getting expelled from schools for drawing a picture of a gun, or whatever, because people are afraid of getting sued in increasingly unrealistic hypothetical scenarios.

[1monster]

14. Except the liability bit is not true. Florida has a Good Samaritan Law

Florida Good Samaritan Law

768.13

Good Samaritan Act; immunity from civil liability.—



(1) This act shall be known and cited as the "Good Samaritan Act."

(2)(a) Any person, including those licensed to practice medicine, who gratuitously and in good faith renders emergency care or treatment either in direct response to emergency situations related to and arising out of a public health emergency declared pursuant to s. 381.00315, a state of emergency which has been declared pursuant to s. 252.36 or at the scene of an emergency outside of a hospital, doctor's office, or other place having proper medical equipment, without objection of the injured victim or victims thereof, shall not be held liable for any civil damages as a result of such care or treatment or as a result of any act or failure to act in providing or arranging further medical treatment where the person acts as an ordinary reasonably prudent person would have acted under the same or similar circumstances.

http://www.cprinstructor.com/FL-GS.htm

[Patiod]

24. Playing devil's advocate: that's not the suit they're worried about

they probably worry that someone may drown on one of their protected beaches while he's saving someone on an "unprotected" beach, and then the family would sue because there was no one on duty.

[1StrongBlackMan]

29. Yep ...

That's what I was thinking.

But, it would seem (not knowing rescue protocol) that anytime when a life-guard goes off their chair, there would be signal to other guards, to cover his/her zone, and possibly to EMS to treat the person pulled out of the water.

This would mitigate the liability.

[Patiod]

45. I believe I read there were always 4 guards and some assistants on duty

so it's not like he was leaving his area completely unprotected.

But it doesn't matter. He did the right thing, and I hope someone will reward him for it.

[onethatcares]

2. since prick scott took over here

nothing surprises me anymore.

that is an apt comparison to the pricksters misadminstration, if he doesn't feel it merits his time or he isn't getting
paid for it, the citizens are on thier own.

[CanonRay]

3. Libertarian perfection in action.

"Lopez employer is not paid to patrol the zone where the man was drowing"

No profit? Go ahead and drown.

[stockholmer]

6. +100000

Common sense turned into common cents.

[demwing]

8. I heard it as:

common sense defeated by come on cents!

either way it typical of the selfishness our country has adopted. It all makes me want to go somewhere else where people are valued...

[PatrynXX]

12. libertarian or tea party. don't mix them up

not the same thing. Libertarian would fire the supervisor. only a tea bag would fire the employee

[1StrongBlackMan]

31. ???

Why would the Libertarian fire the supervisor? He did what he was suppose to do, i.e., ensure that the service contract was being upheld ... provide servicesue only those in the contracted for zone.

So I suspect the Libertarian response to this story would be, not to fire the supervisor; but to ask: "So what's the problem?"

Whereas, the Teapartier's response to this article would be: "Neither me nor my family members were involved so why is MY tax dollar being used to provide life guard services in the first place."

[stockholmer]

5. ah, the corporate price of life as defined by 'liabilties'..what a sickness has been wrought forth

“If the law supposes that,” said Mr. Bumble,… “the law is a ass—a idiot. If that’s the eye of the law, the law is a bachelor; and the worst I wish the law is that his eye may be opened by experience—by experience.”

CHARLES DICKENS, Oliver Twist

[Kennah]

9. Sounds like the drowning man didn't have the proper lifeguard company medallion

[Grins]

10. This is another reason why we can't have nice things.

Fired? Shit.

This is another reason why we can't have nice things. We're too stupid to survive as a Republic.

[Faryn Balyncd]

15. And 6 of the 7 Americans fired by JeffEllis&Ass. broke NO policy or law, but were fired on July 4...

...for exercising their first amendment right of free speech!

And having the guts to say they would also do the right thing.

Is this an American parable, or what?

[Odin2005]

16. Bureaucratic stupidity.

[From The Ashes]

17. The story has been updated...

http://abcnews.go.com/US/fired-florida-lifeguards-coworkers-exit/story?id=16711655#.T_Tlo_VFuN0

Six Florida lifeguards have lost their jobs for backing a coworker's decision to save a man struggling in the surf but outside their jurisdiction.

Tomas Lopez , 21, was fired Monday for vacating his lifeguarding zone to save a man drowning in unprotected waters 1,500 feet south of his post on Hallandale Beach, Fla.

Six of Lopez's coworkers said they would have done the same thing. And now, they've been fired too.

"I can listen to the rule and tell them that I wouldn't help someone who was distressed, but I knew if the incident ever came up I would go," said 19-year-old Brian Ritchie, who was fired today for saying he too would rescue someone outside his patrol zone.

What the frack is wrong with people?!? Firing people for expressing support?

[Posteritatis]

18. .... Wow. (nt)

[maddezmom]

19. wow

this is insane.

[XemaSab]

20. Hopefully they all get new, better jobs

for someone who hires people based on moral decency and not the bottom line.

[octothorpe]

42. or even better, the prickish company will lose the contract

then these people will be hired by a new company that picks the contract up.

[RobinA]

59. Judging By

what my 32 years of employment, most in social services, have taught me, none of them will ever work again because they are known trouble makers and non-rule followers. It ain't the '60's anymore. Following the rules, obedience to authority, and not thinking for oneself is the "skill set" valued these days.

[SkatmanRoth]

22. What is wrong with people? What you bet the people running the company are Republican

Republicans have to stick to those contracts. It is all about profit you know.

[24601]

60. This is a Democratic Administration - a local government action. You can't blame

Scott, Obama, Ban Ki-moon, Bush or Rove for this one. Here are the associations to which Mayor Cooper belongs:

Memberships:
Broward Coalition for the Homeless
Democratic Women’s Club of Broward County
Democratic National Committee
National Women’s Political Caucus
Women Elected to Municipal Government
Florida & National League of Cities
Broward Young Democrats
Planned Parenthood
American Civil Liberties Union
National Organization of Women
National Council of Jewish Women
Jewish Women International, Lifetime Member;
Past Vice President, Huntingdon Valley Chapter
World Jewish Congress
Hadassah- Life Member
ORT, Member; Past President, Keystone Chapter, PA
US Holocaust Memorial Museum
Temple Solel Sisterhood
Rotary Club of Hallandale Beach
Sons of Italy
Lions Club
Greater Hollywood Interfaith Council

[AngryOldDem]

32. So now, that beach won't have lifeguards either?

Insanity. Human life trumps any kind of rule.

Even though the beach where the person was saved had signs that it did not have lifeguards on duty, you just don't let someone drown.

Hopefully the outrage over this will make the company reconsider its decision.

[1StrongBlackMan]

33. I wonder how many employees ...

that company has?

And if that company has legal counsel advising them with respect to the NLRB's position on employers disciplining its employees for making public remarks critical of the company.

http://www.winston.com/siteFiles/Publications/NLRBIssuesSecondReportSocial%20Media_1_26_11.pdf

While this primer is attached to "social media" issues, it should be concerning to counsel since employees speaking to the press has already been settled.

[warrprayer]

36. The stupid

... is staggering!!!!

[Gormy Cuss]

55. Good for the co-workers. The bosses, on the other hand

need to swim in a smelly kiddie pool.

[happyslug]

21. Reminds me when a Police Officer was fired for responding to an attack outside the town's limit

It has to be 30-40 years ago, but Portage Borough, Cambria County PA, fired a Police Officer for responding to a woman screaming that she was being attacked OUTSIDE the Borough borders (The attack was occurring in Portage TOWNSHIP instead of Portage BOROUGH, the Officer was employed by the Borough to patrol the Borough). The Officer lost his job, he was NOT hired to protect people outside the Borough and for going to the assistance of the person being attacked he LEFT the Borough while employed by the Borough.

Just a comment, that this is not unheard of, it is more common then most people think.

[Beacool]

39. Just proves that a-holes have existed for generations.

[octothorpe]

43. Was there any backlash for his firing?

Seems like something most people in a community would speak up against.

[happyslug]

50. People talked about it to this day, that is how I found out about it.

The Local Paper even brought it up (Where I read about it). Portage Borough has had to love down that reputation ever since. The Officer went elsewhere (Portage also only paid they Police Minimum Wage, thus always had a high turnover in Police Officers). Just a bad reputation, through the town people tend to be OK and easy to deal with, it is just one of the towns reputation,

Portage Borough is undergoing some hardships, I had clients living in Portage paying $150 a Month rent. It was an old fashion hotel. that had seen much better days. The stairs gave a little, extension cords were used all over the place. Some questions as to structure and fire safety, but seems to have passed all inspections. Johnstown is in bad economic conditions with the decline in the Steel Industry, but Portage was tied in with the coal mining and has never recover from the collapse of the coal industry.

Portage received its name for it was the location of Incline Number 2 of the 1836 Pennsylvania Canal. The Inclines (there were ten) were between Holidaysburg and Johnstown, connecting the two parts of the Canal over Allegheny Mountain, the Eastern Continental Divide). The Incline and the connecting railway between them were called the Portage Railway. Portage Borough took its the Portage Railway.

More on the Portage Railway:
http://www.nps.gov/alpo/index.htm
http://www.jaha.org/edu/flood/why/img/canal_gallery/index.html
http://www.jaha.org/edu/flood/why/img/canal_gallery/pages/pacanalboat.html

[XanaDUer]

23. Hmmmm. "Jeff Ellis Management"

is the company they work for. Another outsourcing miracle!

[mahatmakanejeeves]

25. Yeah, but

Tomas Lopez , 21, was fired by his supervisor for vacating his lifeguarding zone....

What if someone had drowned in his assigned zone while he was gone?

[JoePhilly]

26. Lifeguards from surrounding stands often converge to assit in rescues, thus leaving their assigned

zones.

The boss is a jerk, nothing more.

I suspect that the lifeguards involved will all get much better jobs based on the publicity.

[jberryhill]

28. No one did

That's the difference between hypotheticals and reality.

[1StrongBlackMan]

34. What if two people are drowning at opposite ends of ...

a covered (contracted and paid for) zone? The life-guard couldn't rescue both.

A competent coverage plan would address both these scenarios.

[yellowcanine]

40. The plan for the beach should have covered that possibility.

If a lifeguard has to go into the water, even in his assigned zone, he can no longer cover his zone. Another lifeguard has to fill in and call for backup.

[wordpix]

56. sounds like the co. had little to no plan/communications

which is really a problem caused by the company and not by the lifeguards.

[ohgeewhiz]

27. From the idiot Lifeguard company's web site

Jeff Ellis Management Statement:
“We need to know the exact facts of what happened. Once this investigation is
complete, if we did something inappropriate, we will make it right. That includes
offering him his employment back if he was terminated in haste”

[jberryhill]

30. Their web site is toast today

[1StrongBlackMan]

35. My guess ...

Jeff Ellis Management got a call from their attorney.

[yellowcanine]

37. A properly guarded beach will have a plan for covering an area if a guard has to go into the water

for any reason, whether in his zone or not. Because when the guard is in the water he cannot possibly cover the rest of the zone. When Lopez left his zone an adjacent life guard should have noticed and watched the zone while calling for backup. So the fact that they are saying the zone was not covered tells me this company is either not staffing the beach properly or not training their lifeguards properly. The company is the one who should be fired.

[Beacool]

38. The one who should be fired is the moron who fired Lopez.

I'm sure that in the eyes of the man who was saved by him he is a hero.

Idiocy reigns in the land.........

[yellowcanine]

41. So if a swimmer enters the water in a protected zone and gets pulled by a current into an

unprotected zone, tough luck for him?

[slackmaster]

48. Residents inland from the unprotected zone refused to pay the annual lifeguard service fee

[Posteritatis]

58. Yep. That employer requires that said swimmer die. (nt)

[ladjf]

44. There's an awful psychiatric disease overwhelming America. This incident is just another

symptom. nt

[castnet55]

46. Rehired

After further review the man has been reinstated and I hope the other fired will also be rehired.

[betty from CG]

47. A shame for all

Both employes trying to do what was "right".

Lifeguard used good judgment in following his gut.
Midline supervisor likely followed his rules defining "abandonment" of the specific area.

Owner has already apologized and offered the job back. These things happen.

[maddezmom]

49. welcome to DU

Glad to hear the owner offered the jobs back.

[FiveGoodMen]

51. Something's wrong with the article

Lopez said he jumped into the water and "I double underhooked him…I was worried about the guy and his health. He was blue."

By the time Lopez arrived on the scene, other beachgoers had dragged the unconscious man ashore and started CPR. He is recovering at Aventura Hospital, according to the Sun Sentinel.

What is one supposed to make of that?

[PuppyBismark]

52. Life Guards offered their jobs back. The City of Hallandale Beach Handled it

I went to the city web site to complain and tonight I received the following, it appears that Mr. Jeff Ellis of Jeff Ellis Management, has changed his mind.

Thank you for contacting the City of Hallandale Beach regarding the beach incident that occurred on July 2, 2012. The lifeguard is not a City employee, but was employed by Jeff Ellis Management, a private company contracted to provide lifeguard services for two city-owned beaches and the Municipal pool. The City has been in close contact with Jeff Ellis of Jeff Ellis Management who has conducted a full investigation into the termination of their lifeguard. Jeff Ellis Management has apologized for the termination of the lifeguard at the beach, and has offered reinstatement to the terminated lifeguard as well as the other co-workers who resigned in protest.

It has always been the City’s policy that if there is an actual emergency inside or outside of the protected area, the lifeguard must respond. We do however have to ensure that certain safety protocols are followed to ensure the safety of all visitors to the City of Hallandale Beach. The City would like to commend the actions of Mr. Lopez and the other good Samaritans that came to the aide of our near drowning victim on July 2, 2012. The City of Hallandale Beach wishes him a speedy recovery.

We truly value your concerns and comments on this issue. The safety of our Beach patrons and the manner in which this service is provided is paramount to the City of Hallandale Beach.

Renee C. Crichton
City Manager
City of Hallandale Beach
400 S. Federal Highway
Hallandale Beach, FL 33009
954-457-1300 Phone
954-457-1454 Fax

[Angry Dragon]

53. That is a good thing

[Beacool]

54. I'm just watching this on TV.

Although he and the rest of the life guards were offered their jobs back they all decided not to accept the offer.

Good for them!!! I hope that other towns offer them a better position.

[wordpix]

57. "We do however have to ensure that certain safety protocols are followed." What WERE the protocols

for one guard vacating his station to save someone?

There should have been both communications and temporary coverage protocols that are company policy and that all employees are trained in.

The No. 1 "protocol" that this lifeguard DID follow was to save someone who was drowning. That shouldn't have been questioned at all.