As an aside to a story I posted in LBN concerning a brave parent saving his son's life by breathing in to him underwater for 7 minutes when the 14 year old was trapped by a broken drain in a hotel hot tub I researched this info because I found it repugnant how the RW railed against trial lawyers like John Edwards.

And interestingly it is a Democrat - Debbie Wasserman Schultz - who is teaming with Baker and his daughter to try to reform the pool industry.

First a snippet of interest - note this is same manufacturer John Edwards sued in Valerie Lakey case - guess they didn't learn the lesson though this time they were involved with the pump. Thought Republicans didn't file these frivolous suits.

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Eventually, the Bakers would file a lawsuit against Hayward Pool Products, the manufacturer of the drain cover; Sta-Rite, the maker of the pool pump; and the pool service company that maintained the spa. In late 2004, Sta-Rite settled for an undisclosed amount. No court date has been set for the trial against the other two companies.

http://www.poolspanews.com/2006/032/032bak...

Info on another lawsuit against Sta-Rite on defect in pump.

A Dade County jury determined Aug. 1 that a Sta-Rite single-horsepower pump was responsible for trapping Lorenzo Peterson underwater for several minutes. The incident caused the boy to suffer irreversible brain damage. He now lives in a permanent vegetative state and is under 24-hour medical care.

The Peterson family, from North Miami, Fla., claimed in its lawsuit that the pump was unsafe and Sta-Rite made no effort to modify the design to make it less dangerous or to warn distributors about risks it caused for swimmers, said Michael Haggard, the Miami-based lead attorney for the Petersons.

<snip>

Peterson was the 21st person to be involved in a lawsuit against Sta-Rite in the last 23 years. Several of the lawsuits were inherited by Sta-Rite when it acquired a California company called SwimQuip in 1980. Peterson's case was not the first large damage award the Delavan company encountered as a result of a pool accident.

In 1997, a Raleigh, N.C., jury awarded $25 million in compensatory damages to the family of then 9-year-old Valerie Lakey, who lost most of her intestines after sitting down in a children's wading pool and getting stuck to the drain. Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.), a 2004 presidential candidate, was the lawyer for the Lakey family.

Also in 1997, Sta-Rite, in cooperation with the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, recalled 135,000 pool pumps because of faulty inlet fittings.

http://milwaukee.bizjournals.com/milwaukee...

From Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz's(D) speech on Baker's granddaughter's death:
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Two and a half years ago, on a hot June day, 7-year-old Virginia Graeme Baker, granddaughter of former Secretary of State, James Baker went with her mother, Nancy, and four sisters to a family friend’s home for a graduation party.

Graeme, as she was affectionately known, had worn her swimsuit to the party and jumped in the pool as soon as they arrived.

Shortly after, Graeme’s older sister ran up to Nancy and told her that Graeme was underwater in the hot tub and would not come up. Nancy raced to the spa, but could not find Graeme in the hot tub’s dark water and thick bubbles.

What she did next is what I know any mother would do. Nancy jumped into the hot tub to save her child.

Sadly, she found her daughter lying unconscious on the bottom of the spa. She threw her arms down into the water to pull Graeme up, but could not wrench her from the bottom.

As she desperately yanked, two men jumped in and grabbed Graeme’s ankles, they had to pull so hard to release Graeme that they broke the drain cover.

Emergency units arrived immediately and performed CPR, but Graeme could not be revived. She was flown to Fairfax Hospital in Virginia , but it was too late. Graeme was pronounced dead.

It wasn’t until the police report came out, that Nancy discovered what happened: Graeme’s hip or buttock had become suctioned to the hot tub’s drain.

Graeme Baker, a child of one of the most prominent families in America , was the victim of suction entrapment.

As with most pool and hot tub drownings, the fact that her death was entirely preventable makes the loss that much more tragic and infuriating.

Despite the enormity of this tragedy, Nancy Baker overcame it! She committed herself to ensuring that this never happens to another child and embarked on a crusade to improve pool safety.

Nancy shared Graeme’s story across America and testified before the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission on the need for improved safety measures in pools and hot tubs.

Nancy is here with us today and I’d like to recognize her for her great courage and tremendous resilience.

http://www.house.gov/schultz/speeches/sp06...

The Valerie Lakey case that John Edwards fought.

On a summer evening in 1993, David Lakey took his little girl swimming at a recreation center in Raleigh, N.C. Valerie Lakey was 5 years old, a good swimmer, and she and her friends liked to splash around in the children's wading pool that stayed open a little later than the big pool where they usually swam.

That's what Valerie was doing when a nearby mom heard her call out for help. Valerie was sitting on the bottom of the shallow pool, and the suction from the drain was holding her down. David Lakey raced to free his daughter but couldn't. Other parents jumped in the water to help, but they couldn't get Valerie loose. Valerie was scared, and she began to say that her stomach hurt.

Time passed, and somebody figured out how to turn off the pool's pump. The suction broke, and Valerie was released from its grip. But as David Lakey pulled his daughter from the water, blood and tissue filled the pool. Valerie's intestines had been sucked out.

David Lakey slumped to the ground on the side of the pool. He held his daughter on his chest, praying as they waited for an ambulance. Over and over, he told Valerie, "Daddy loves you. Daddy loves you. Daddy loves you."

This account of what happened to Valerie Lakey comes from "Four Trials," the book John Edwards wrote last year as he prepared to run for the presidency. Edwards represented Valerie in a lawsuit against the company that made the drain cover in that swimming pool. A jury awarded her $25 million, compensation for a life of intravenous feedings and colostomy bags.

http://stevegilliard.blogspot.com/2004/07/... ...

A little snippet from Jan 06.

Valerie Lakey will turn 18 this month, 12 1/2 years since a loose cover allowed the drain’s suction to disembowel her. After years of surgery and treatment, a routine — school, piano lessons, birthday parties — slowly developed in her life. But no parent wants to imagine parts of the routine — nights attached to feeding tubes, the constant risk of infections and organ failures. “She’s in a lot of pain,” her mother says. “She’s got permanent injuries that are going to affect her the rest of her life.”

http://www.businessnc.com/archives/2006/01... ...