Leticia Triplett served her country for 24 years, but when she needed help, there was no one there, even though she died in the middle of the Las Vegas Athletic Club.
Triplett, 58, died on February 4 on the stairs of the club’s pool. Her death was ruled a drowning.
The club waged a legal fight to keep the public from seeing internal video of her death, but lost the case, according to KLAS-TV.
The video showed that as Triplett was struggling, swimmers and staff went about their business, according to KLAS-TV.
Triplett began her time at the club with an exercise routine that consisted of swimming and kicking her legs as she held onto the pool wall.
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At one point, Triplett appeared to stop kicking as she seemed to struggle. After her head went under the water, she began to try to leave the pool by holding onto the wall as she tried to reach the pool stairs.
As she was struggling, people swam past her and walked past her as they entered the pool.
After Triplett reached the pool stairs, she grabbed the handrails and tried to lift herself up.
Instead, she fell deeper in the pool as her head went underwater.
Would you have recognized this as drowning?
For 20 minutes, she remained there as people walked or swam past her.
Some looked at her, but it was not until she lay in the water for 20 minutes that a person from another pool came over to pull her to the edge of the water, where others then helped retrieve Triplett.
A video report on the footage by KLAS-TV can be seen here. WARNING: The linked video contains graphic images.
According to a Southern Nevada Health District investigation report, it was one minute later when an employee of the club came to see what was going on.
Members performed CPR on Triplett, but she died.
Oganna Brown, an attorney representing the club, said the situation was unique.
“In 46 years, there has not been a drowning event,” she said. “This is an anomaly, and this was not a direct drowning event. This was a cardiac arrest.”
The health district, however, found out a near-drowning took place several days after Triplett died.
Joel Henriod, an attorney representing the district, said Triplett was in an unsafe place because there was no lifeguard present.
The incident led to a rule change banning the use of a video feed to substitute for a lifeguard, according to KLAS-TV.
Triplett served in the U.S. Air Force for 24 years, according to KLAS-TV. She completed a tour in Afghanistan in 2008 and served in South Korea, the Azores Islands, New Mexico, Nevada, and Texas.
