Orangetheory Fitness in Milford. Photo: GoogleThe family of a 38-year-old Milford man who died less than an hour after he joined a local fitness center has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the gym, in a case that will boil down to the waiver signed.
“He did sign a waiver, so we will have to get over that hurdle. But it’s a fairly weak waiver. The law in Connecticut is fairly unfavorable to these kinds of waivers. In this state, it’s very difficult to waive ordinary negligence, and the kind of negligence that the victim would not necessarily anticipate. We think the waiver will probably be declared invalid based on their negligence,” said plaintiffs counsel Paul Iannaccone, a partner with RisCassi & Davis in Hartford.
The waiver Craig McCarty signed after he joined Orangetheory Fitness in Milford on May 16, 2019, says, in part: “In recognition of the possible dangers connected with any physical activity, the undersigned waives any and all costs, claims, charges, liabilities, allegations, and causes of action of any kind arising as the result of such activity.”
Iannaccone filed the wrongful death lawsuit, citing both negligence and recklessness, in New Haven Superior Court against the facility and trainer Heidi Langan on Nov. 13. The fitness center was served with the lawsuit this week, Iannaccone said.
Iannaccone argues the facility and Langan were neglectful because it “was obvious Mr. McCarty was overweight and probably obese. No one asked him if he had done interval training or high-intensity training, or really whether he had worked out at all.”
Iannaccone said that McCarty, who was 6 feet tall and weighed 252 pounds, was inexperienced with interval training at the time of his death.
Iannaccone said Orangetheory should have either denied McCarty the ability to use the gym or, at the very least, watched him carefully. Neither was done, Iannaccone said.
Iannaccone said McCarty was part of a class that had used a rowing machine, a strength training machine and then a treadmill. McCarty, he said, had a “cardiac event” while running on the treadmill about 50 minutes after joining the gym. Personnel and others tried to revive him, but to no avail, Iannaccone said.
“They probably should have dissuaded him from using the equipment. But, if they were going to let him do it, he needed close attention,” Iannaccone said. “There were several people in the class and he was not getting the one-on-one attention he needed. Given the fact he was clinically obese and inexperienced, it was a real danger zone for him.”
In addition, the attorney said, at one point McCarty’s heartbeat got as high as 240 beats per minute.
“His levels were very dangerous for about 12 minutes without anyone doing anything,” Iannaccone claimed.
Iannaccone continued: “The whole theory of the defendant gym is to encourage people to get their heart rate as high as possible. If you are in shape, you can do this. If you’re an obese person, you can’t do this.”
Iannaccone said he’s seeking “at least seven figures.”
Iannaccone said McCarty was a traveling nurse working at Yale New Haven Hospital at the time of his death.
As of late Wednesday morning, Orangetheory Fitness, which is a chain, had not secured counsel. No one from the fitness facility responded to a request for comment Wednesday, and Langan didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Iannaccone said McCarty’s widow, Amy, and their daughter “are still very distraught. They are trying to get by.”
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