In a week of mounting temperatures and National Weather Service heat advisories throughout Miami, the City of Hialeah closed its three remaining public swimming pools following Florida Health Department findings.<\/p>\n
The city\u2019s Bucky Dent Water Park, which reopened in July after a year-long closure, once again closed following an incident involving an 80-year-old man who had a medical emergency while in a pool. It was later revealed that the facilities were operating without proper permits and that there was a problem with equipment at the water park, according to reporting from The Miami Herald.<\/p>\n
Outside of that, the three pools \u2014 McDonald Pool, Milander Pool and Babcock Pool\u00a0\u2014 will temporarily close after several violations were found. A pool with no chlorine, broken safety equipment, and other potential hazards are among the contraventions found by inspectors on the properties.<\/p>\n
City officials said they will bring an independent health and safety expert to conduct an investigation and come up with an action plan to evaluate \u201cwhat corrective measures are needed,\u201d The Herald<\/a> reported.<\/p>\n In Florida, public swimming pools must undergo proper sanitation and fall in line with water-quality requirements that are enforced by the FDOH. This means that pool operators must maintain the water within a prescribed chemical and sanitary parameters and have proper testing equipment on site to test and record pH and disinfectant levels. These requirements are particularly important for reducing the risk of waterborne pathogens, including Legionella, a bacterium that can cause Legionnaires\u2019 disease, a severe form of pneumonia, when people inhale water droplets containing the bacteria.<\/p>\n Leesfield & Partners, a personal injury law firm with five decades of experience representing tourists and locals alike, has extensive experience dealing with Legionnaires\u2019 disease<\/a> cases.<\/p>\n Leesfield & Partners<\/p>\n For 50 years, Leesfield & Partners has\u00a0diligently represented<\/a>\u00a0countless clients in Legionnaires\u2019 disease cases against hotels, property management companies, resorts, pool maintenance companies, and other entities. This landmark result reflects the firm\u2019s unwavering commitment to securing accountability for injured clients and their grieving families.<\/p>\n Legionnaires\u2019 Disease was first identified in 1976 following an outbreak of pneumonia in Philadelphia at a convention for the American Legion, according to the\u00a0FDOH<\/a>. More than 200 people became ill and at least 34 people died as a result of being exposed to the Legionella bacteria. The suspected source in that instance was likely the hotel\u2019s air conditioning cooling towers.<\/p>\n There are 8,000 to 18,000 confirmed hospitalizations due to Legionnaires\u2019 disease every year in the U.S. The latest available data in Florida shows the rate of Legionnaires\u2019 Disease to be 2.4 per every 10,000 people, according to the FDOH.\u00a0In 2020, the state accounted for nearly 60% of reported Legionnaires\u2019 disease outbreaks in the United States and 38% of outbreaks in health care facilities around the country, according to reporting from the\u00a0Tampa Bay Times<\/a>. In 2024, the newspaper reported that cases of the disease were rising, particularly in Florida health care facilities.<\/p>\n While this dangerous bacterium continues to thrive in medical facilities, hotels, resorts, and other properties that fail to properly maintain their water systems, Leesfield & Partners remains steadfast in promoting awareness and holding negligent entities accountable.<\/p>\n Last year, Trial Attorney Eric Shane<\/a> secured what is believed to be the largest recovery for a single Legionnaires\u2019 disease victim in U.S. history when he represented the family of a Legionnaires\u2019 victim who was fatally exposed to the bacteria while using the hot tub at a Florida condominium community. No water management plan was in place to regularly test or properly sanitize the condominium\u2019s water systems.<\/p>\n \u201cThis was a heartbreaking case because it never should have happened,\u201d Mr. Shane said. \u201cLegionnaires\u2019 disease is entirely preventable when hotels and condominiums follow proper maintenance and safety protocols. This is especially true when the source of the bacteria is from a hot tub.\u00a0 No family should have to lose a loved one the way this family did.\u201d<\/p>\n Previous Legionnaires\u2019 Disease Cases<\/p>\n Mr. Shane previously settled a Legionnaires\u2019 Disease case that resulted in a $500,000 settlement after a condominium resident contracted the disease following use of the community\u2019s hot tub.<\/p>\n In another\u00a0Legionnaires\u2019 Disease case<\/a>, also handled by Mr. Shane, a woman was exposed to the bacteria at a Florida hotel. Throughout her stay, our client regularly used a hot tub on the property. On the same day as checkout, the woman began experiencing symptoms such as swelling and fever. After doctors diagnosed her with the disease, she went into septic shock and suffered an acute kidney injury.<\/p>\n In an investigation, it was discovered that the hotel failed to maintain the hot tub in accordance with industry standards. Our client continues to suffer from pain and fatigue. A\u00a0$300,000 recovery\u00a0<\/a>amount was secured for the woman in that case.<\/p>\n Previously, the firm settled two cases of Legionnaires\u2019 Disease resulting from the same resort. The plaintiffs in those cases were unrelated and were not staying at the resort at the same time. Leesfield & Partners\u2019 Founder and Managing Partner,\u00a0Ira Leesfield<\/a>, along with other attorneys at the firm were able to prove that the resort did not properly maintain or sanitize water systems that fueled multiple decorative fountains on the property.<\/p>\n A six-figure settlement for each client was reached in those cases.<\/p>\n Another Leesfield & Partners client was represented by Mr. Shane after they were exposed to the Legionella bacteria during their stay at an Airbnb. That case settled for six figures.<\/p>\n And Legionnaires\u2019 disease is not the only hazard that can cause an accident or injury at a resort or public pool. Equipment failures and improper facilities can also have grave consequences for those who use these facilities. Such as the case for the family in a previous Leesfield & Partners case out of Osceola County.<\/p>\n In that case, our client\u2019s son was swimming when he was tragically caught in the suction of the pool\u2019s drain. The child could not be removed because the hotel failed to have an emergency shut off switch.<\/p>\n For nearly 10 minutes, our client\u2019s child remained underwater. As a result, he was later diagnosed with brain damage that would require life-long medical care. This case, which was handled by Founder and Managing Partner,\u00a0Ira Leesfield<\/a>, is the largest result of its kind in Osceola County.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In a week of mounting temperatures and National Weather Service heat advisories throughout Miami, the City of Hialeah…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":77095,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[225,227,226],"class_list":["post-376678","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-hialeah","tag-hialeah","tag-hialeah-headlines","tag-hialeah-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376678","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=376678"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376678\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/77095"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=376678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=376678"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=376678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}