Damages to Recover for After a Drowning Accident

Drowning accidents, as with any property accident, can involve all manner of financial losses and personal damages. Familiarizing yourself with these tangible and intangible damages is a good start when appraising your potential to receive compensation, which can then be refined by a personal injury attorney in Nevada to give you an accurate portrayal of what you could recover.

Fatal Drowning vs. Near-Drowning

Drowning comes in two primary types: Fatal drowning and near-drowning. Fatal drowning is most closely associated with drowning, on the whole, often involving wrongful death claims for a variety of damages experienced by the decedent’s family, such as:

• Loss of the decedent’s earning capacity and wages, which can be temporarily paid out based on a portion of their projected earnings had they survived
• General financial losses, such as funeral expenses, attorney’s fees, etc.
• Loss of consortium and companionship, which can be compensated as partial reparation for the mental anguish and loneliness experienced by the family
• Pain and suffering damages experienced by the decedent, as long as they  would have been eligible to receive such compensation had they survived

Near-drowning, conversely, refers to any scenario in which a victim survives a drowning incident or passes away in the hospital after the fact. These incidents can have profound, lasting physical consequences for survivors, so it’s important to familiarize yourself with the aftermath of near-drowning:

• Physical anguish, mental trauma, and water-related phobias
• Brain damage as a result of oxygen deprivation, resulting in disabilities and/ or a vegetative state
• Temporary or permanent lung damage, resulting in fatigue, pneumonia, difficulty breathing, and chronic pain
• Kidney damage or failure induced by altered blood pH from excessive absorption of water and/ or chemical impurities

Premises Liability for Nevada Drowning Accidents

Liability for drowning accidents is fundamentally complex. On one hand, swimmers are expected to swim within their abilities, avoiding unsafe scenarios such as being near pools while drunk or while nobody else is around; on the other, property owners need to take precautions to ensure that nobody drowns on the premises. So, how do you know who’s to blame? Depending on where the drowning accident happened, you can look at a few key details:

• If the drowning took place in a small, privately-owned pool or body of water, see if any Nevada swimming pool regulations were violated by the owner, which mostly involve fences and other clear barriers to entry. If the drowning occurred while the victim was lawfully on the property, due to some amount of negligence, you can likely file a claim against the owner.
• Hotels and other commercial outlets have stricter standards to adhere to, especially as far as the design and maintenance of the pool/ pool equipment is concerned.
• If the drowning involved an unsupervised, natural body of water such as a lake, property owners likely will have nothing to do with it. Lake drownings usually involve intoxicated adults making poor decisions, but may also be the fault of negligent boaters who failed to ensure that their passengers wore life jackets.

Ultimately, you’ll need the help of a Las Vegas premises liability lawyer to decisively determine who’s to blame for a drowning or near-drowning accident. Pursuing compensation for these cases can be a tedious, challenging affair, but Aaron Law Group’s legal professionals can simplify things for you, giving you time to focus on your family in the aftermath of such a traumatic incident. Give us a call today at (702) 550-1111 to schedule your free consultation and learn more about your road to recovery.