By Marcelle Dibrell
A suction entrapment fatality of an 8-year-old occurred in a Texas public swimming pool, marking the second time such an incident has occurred at a public pool since the Virginia Graham Baker Act (VGBA) was signed into law in 2008, according to officials with the Consumer Product Safety Commission.
Aliyah Jaico was killed on March 23 while swimming with her family members in the lazy river swimming pool at the DoubleTree by Hilton Houston Brookhollow.
Authorities said that she was sucked into the plumbing and that the pipe that she was pulled into had no grate, a violation of the Pool and Spa Safety Act that has made VGBA-compliant drain and plumbing covers mandatory for all public pools since 2008.
Her family has filed a 100-milliondollar lawsuit. The attorney representing the family, Richard Nava, said, “Everyone knows this was avoidable.”
According to the lawsuit, Aliyah “loved to swim,” and her mother, Jose Daniela Jaico Ahumada, rented a room at the hotel that day specifically “to enjoy a day of swimming with her family.”
The lazy river swimming pool at the DoubleTree by Hilton Houston Brookhollow has a suction line that was unprotected, uninspected, unapproved and unsafe, resulting in the horrific death of 8-year old Aliyah Jaico. Photos credit Houston Fire, Hilton Hotels. At a press conference that took place three days after the child died, Nava explained how the incident occurred: “There was an issue with the flow of the water — the back flow. And we believe that Aliyah was violently sucked into the hole that was about 12 to 16 inches wide. Her poor little body was contorted when she was sucked into this pipe, 20 feet back. Her body was inside the motor, where she had to be extracted. They had to break up concrete in order to extract her. Cut pipe. It was absolutely horrific.”
Nava explained that there were many other patrons there, including her mother and other family members, and they were all swimming together. Her 5-year-old sister was there. A 13-year-old family member was present. A niece turned around and Aliyah had simply disappeared. “It happened in a split second,” Nava said.
The attorney had not yet seen the surveillance video at the time of the press conference, but he said he believes that the evidence will show that Aliyah might have been trying to help her little sister, who might also have been drowning by being pulled into the pipe. The 13-year-old then removed the 5-year-old and took her out of the swimming pool.
According to the lawsuit, moments after Aliyah disappeared, her mother noticed her missing, and she raised the alarm with hotel employees immediately at about 4:50 p.m.
At about 5:20 p.m., the frantic mother asked hotel management to look at the video surveillance footage, but hotel staff said that police must be present to view it, the lawsuit states. Houston police said the girl was reported missing at about 5:45 p.m.
Police searched the lazy river, the hotel grounds, her family’s hotel room, and were beginning to search a body of water just outside the hotel grounds.
Tim Miller, founder of Texas EquuSearch, a non-profit search and recovery organization, arrived at the scene shortly after Aliyah was reported missing.
He said his biggest fear at the time was that the child had been abducted.
He has seen the surveillance video, and said that the footage was very clear on the area filming Aliyah and her family.
“You could see her,” Miller said. “You could see her little head go down and never be seen again. It was pretty obvious something happened and she never got out of the pool.”
Using long poles with cameras attached to the end, Miller and his team finally discovered Aliyah’s body at the end of the 20-foot pipe.
Asked if the outcome might have been different if the hotel would have showed Aliyah’s desperate mother the surveillance video when she asked to see it, Miller said, “I don’t know it would have changed anything at all if she would have seen that video earlier.”
Miller explained that the pipe Aliyah was sucked into was supposed to be a return line, which should have been pumping water out.
“There was another pipe right beside that pipe that did have the grate on it,” Miller said. “So, what the speculation is now: I think there was some work done with that pump, possibly even changed that pump. And if that pump was wired wrong, the pipe that was suppose to blow water out, would have sucked it in. Right beside it was a pipe with a grate that was the one that was supposed to be sucking in.”
Miller said they’ve tried unsuccessfully to contact the pool service company that may have worked on the pool.
A Houston Health Department inspection that took place on March 26 found 22 code violations including the missing grate that led to the child’s death. Furthermore, according to the inspection report, the lazy river itself was never properly permitted in the first place, and the operators failed to obtain an inspection prior to opening it to the public, as is required.
Nava said that the Hilton hotel was running an establishment with many violations and that the pool was not in working order.
A Hilton spokesperson provided the following statement, which seems to attempt to separate the Hilton brand from the Houston DoubleTree hotel property owners: “ Hilton offers our sincere condolences to the family and loved ones for the tragic loss of a young girl at the DoubleTree by Hilton Houston Brookhollow. This property is independently owned and operated by a third party. Hilton does not own, manage, or control the day-to-day operations of the property and does not employ any of the property’s staff or its third-party operators.”
But Nava said they aren’t going to let DoubleTree or Hilton get away with that.
“I know DoubleTree’s standards,” Nava said. “I stay at DoubleTrees myself. And this hotel is not linked up to what they market themselves as. You have a standard when you go to a DoubleTree that attracts a premium. We look to make DoubleTree and the Hilton family responsible for this, as well as the local operators.”
The family has filed a restraining order to prevent DoubleTree operators from altering any aspect of the pool’s layout from how it was left at the time of Aliyah’s death.
The family is seeking a jury trial, damages in excess of the jurisdictional limits of $1 million permitted by Texas law, and is, in fact, suing for $100 million.
