Daughter of Scarborough man who died in Cuba questions resort's safety policies

Daughter of Scarborough man who died in Cuba questions resort's safety
policies
Lifeguards absent at the beach, witnesses said
By Laura Fraser and Michelle Cheung, CBC News Posted: Oct 08, 2015 6:12
PM ET Last Updated: Oct 08, 2015 6:12 PM ET

The daughter of a Scarborough man who died at a Cuban resort says she
wants to know why an ambulance crew left her father's body on the beach
for four hours and is questioning the medical attention lifeguards gave him.

Sellviya Nicholas Anton last saw her father, Elvin, alive on the morning
of Aug. 25, while the pair pushed themselves through a gruelling pool
aerobics class. It was his second day at Memories Varadero, at what
was a reunion of sorts with his wife, his children and two dozen members
of their family.

Within an hour, Sellviya Nicholas Anton was called to the beach to find
lifeguards standing over her father. An ambulance would not arrive until
about 30 minutes after another Scarborough family pulled the
unresponsive 62-year-old man from the water, his daughter said.

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"It's not like [you] call 911 and they're there within five minutes,"
Sellviya Nicholas Anton said. "The waiting was just so frustrating for
me... as I'm watching my own father die in front of my eyes."

It's unclear why the ambulance took so long to arrive, although Sellviya
Nicholas Anton said she was told by Canadian consular officials that
only two ambulance vans service the resort town.

A doctor who accompanied the ambulance spent just a few moments with the
elder Nicholas Anton, his daughter said. The doctor declared the
Scarborough man dead and then prepared to leave, several witnesses told
CBC News.

"She came in, looked at my Dad and threw a towel over his head,"
Sellviya Nicholas Anton said. "Then she walked off."

And although some of the 24 family members gathered on the beach asked
the ambulance to take Elvin Nicholas Anton to hospital, they refused,
his daughter and a family friend, Preamini Geevaharan, told CBC News.
The ambulance told them to wait for police, leaving the body to lie in
the scorching Cuban sun for four hours.

"They just left him on the ground, on the sand," Sellviya Nicholas Anton
said. "My family had to physically pick him up and put him on a [lawn
chair] from a Toronto tourist."

The police moved her father into the first floor of the hotel where
officials from Havana eventually removed her father, Sellviya Nicholas
Anton said. It cost the family $8,500 to embalm the body and have it
flown back to Canada.

"My Dad's body didn't [arrive] in Toronto until the 10th day so he was
decaying like crazy," she said. "I'm just happy that he's buried now.

The family has not yet received the formal cause of Elvin Nicholas
Anton's death, his daughter said. They do have a preliminary report
saying he died of a heart attack, but Sellviya Nicholas Anton said her
mother has been told she may have to wait up to nine months for autopsy
results.

She said she believes her father could have been revived if he had
received immediate medical attention, questioning whether the lifeguards
received training. The Geevaharan family told Sellviya Nicholas Anton
that her father still had a pulse when they pulled him ashore.

No sign of lifeguards

Preamini Geevaharan and her parents were swimming nearby when Elvin
Nicholas Anton bumped into them in the water and was unresponsive. She
said she looked down the beach, but saw no sign of a lifeguard.

"Someone had to run to go get [them]," the Scarborough woman told CBC News.

When the lifeguards arrived, a Canadian nurse visiting the resort said
they seemed to be performing CPR incorrectly, Lizzie Tupizin, another
witness, said.

Both Geevaharan and Tupizin said the vacationing nurse intervened and
took over CPR.

Blue Diamond Resorts, Memories Varadero's parent company, said in a
statement that the staff who responded to the emergency did all they
could to revive Nicholas Anton. The lifeguards on the beach are approved
by the Red Cross and appointed through the government, the statement said.

Sellviya Nicholas Anton said she has not followed up with the resort
since returning home to find out what sort of emergency planning they
have in place.

Family wants to warn others

The Scarborough man's family, however, said they hope other tourists
will look into how a resort prepares its staff for emergencies and what
sort of training they provide before going on vacation.

Other travellers should specifically ask about whether resorts keep a
doctor or nurse on staff and how long it would take to transport someone
to hospital in an emergency, Sellviya Nicholas Anton said.

"They don't emphasize this in their vacation packages or in their
brochures," she said. "They just emphasize the beautiful trees and the
water.

"You think you're stepping into paradise... but in a matter of seconds I
went from paradise to hell."

Source: Daughter of Scarborough man who died in Cuba questions resort's
safety policies - Toronto - CBC News -
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/cuba-resort-ambulance-heart-attack-slow-response-1.3262141