San Antonio Drowning Lawyer

Drowning & Aquatic Accidents in San Antonio, Texas

Every year twenty million tourists flock to San Antonio to visit the city's famous attractions which contribute heavily to the city's economy. Whether people are visiting the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention center, or the Alamo located in downtown or the River Walk at Christmas time, the birthplace of spicy chili and the home of the Frito is a welcoming attraction to tourists and military personnel alike. In fact, the city is home to one of the largest military concentrations in the United States, with Fort Sam Houston, Lackland Air Force Base, Randolph Air Force Base and Brooks City Base all calling San Antonio home.

With temperatures reaching the high 90's in the warm summer months, residents, tourists and military personnel are no strangers to the various water-related activities the city has to offer. When people are injured or killed in diving accidents, pool accidents, boating accidents, lake drownings and water park accidents, The Doan Law Firm, P.C. is available to assist in all the legal aspects associated with aquatic injuries and wrongful death cases.

What is a Drowning Accident?

A drowning accident occurs when a person experiences respiratory impairment due to submersion or immersion in liquid, typically water. It can lead to a lack of oxygen reaching the body's vital organs, which may result in injury or death if not promptly addressed.

Common types of drowning accidents include:

• Submersion Drowning: This is the most common type, where a person is completely submerged in water, leading to a lack of air and oxygen.
• Immersion Drowning: This occurs when the body is immersed in water, leading to respiratory distress or suffocation.
• Dry Drowning: In some cases, water doesn't necessarily enter the lungs during the incident, but the person can still experience complications due to the body's response to the near-drowning event.
• Secondary Drowning: Also known as delayed drowning, this happens when a person appears fine after a near-drowning incident but later develops respiratory issues due to water in the lungs.
• Boat-Related Drowning: Accidents that occur while on or around boats, often involving capsizing, falling overboard, or accidents with watercraft.
• Swimming Pool Drowning: Drowning incidents that happen in swimming pools, whether in private or public settings.
• Open Water Drowning: This includes incidents in oceans, lakes, rivers, or other natural bodies of water.
• Child Drowning: Children are particularly vulnerable to drowning, and incidents can occur in various settings, including pools, bathtubs, and natural water bodies.
• Ice Drowning: Accidents that occur when individuals fall through ice on frozen bodies of water.
• Bathtub Drowning: Incidents that happen when a person is submerged in a bathtub, which can be particularly dangerous for infants and young children.

Common Causes of Drowning Accidents

Drowning accidents can occur due to various factors, often involving a combination of circumstances that compromise an individual's ability to breathe. Here are some common causes of drowning accidents:

• Lack of Supervision: Insufficient or absent supervision, especially for children or inexperienced swimmers, is a primary cause of drowning. It only takes a few moments for an unsupervised person to get into a dangerous situation.
• Inability to Swim: Individuals who lack basic swimming skills may find themselves in distress in water. Even in controlled environments like pools, inadequate swimming abilities can lead to accidents.
• Failure to Wear Life Jackets: Boating or engaging in water activities without wearing appropriate safety gear, such as life jackets, increases the risk of drowning, especially if unexpected situations arise.
• Alcohol and Substance Use: Consuming alcohol or drugs impairs judgment, coordination, and reaction times, increasing the likelihood of accidents in or around water.
• Medical Conditions: Certain medical conditions or sudden health issues can lead to drowning. Seizures, heart attacks, or loss of consciousness in the water can be particularly dangerous.
• Rip Currents: In open water settings, strong currents, such as rip currents, can pull swimmers away from the shore. Inexperienced swimmers may struggle to return to safety.
• Poor Weather Conditions: Adverse weather conditions, such as storms, high winds, or heavy waves, can create hazardous water conditions, increasing the risk of accidents.
• Lack of Barriers and Safety Measures: Inadequate fencing or barriers around pools, lack of warning signs, and poor safety measures contribute to drowning incidents, especially in areas frequented by children.
• Overestimation of Abilities: Overestimating one's swimming abilities or underestimating the dangers of a particular water environment can lead to risky behavior and potential accidents.
• Inattention or Distraction: Distractions, such as using electronic devices or engaging in other activities while in or near water, can prevent individuals from recognizing and responding to potential dangers.
• Hazardous Water Features: Natural water features, like waterfalls, whirlpools, or underwater obstacles, can pose dangers to swimmers, especially if they are not aware of the risks.
• Boating Accidents: Collisions, capsizing, or falling overboard from boats can result in drowning incidents, particularly if individuals are not wearing life jackets.

Handling Drowning Accidents Caused by Negligence

Drowning and near drowning accidents are extremely serious in nature due to the fact that severe oxygen deprivation can lead to brain damage and death. Aquatic accidents are unique as compared to other types of injurious accidents in that they are not only preventable, but almost always deadly in nature. While someone might easily survive an auto accident, the same thing cannot be said for a drunk boating accident or a country club pool accident or from an ice drowning. The one element that most all aquatic accidents include is negligence. Whether the negligence involved a defective pool fence, or a defective pool gate, or improper CPR, or negligent pool maintenance, all these forms of negligence can lead to the drowning death of an innocent adult or worse, a child.

A San Antonio drowning lawyer from The Doan Law Firm, P.C. is available to advocate on behalf of drowning accident victims and their family members. Because the firm is focused on aquatic cases, they are intimately familiar with Texas State laws as they pertain to drowning accidents and premises liability, product liability, as well as insurance claims. Should someone you love be injured or killed in a drowning or near drowning accident, you want somebody who devotes a significant amount of time to these types of cases, as opposed to a firm that rarely, if ever handles drowning accident claims. When you have a caring, compassionate and seasoned legal team on your side in the claims process, you can breathe easier knowing that the firm will not only look out for your best interests, but they will also zealously pursue maximum financial compensation for you and your family.

The firm is adept at handling virtually all types of aquatic injury claims and these include homeowner's association pool accidents, Jet Ski accidents, cruise ship injuries, country club pool accidents and even accidents caused by beach patrol negligence, improper CPR and lifeguard negligence. The firm has handled water park accidents, accidents caused by pool operator negligence, backyard swimming pool drownings, and summer camp drowning /accidents and resort pool accidents. If your loved one was injured or killed in an offshore rig drowning or from an offshore boat drowning, the firm can help you pursue maximum compensation as well.

Seeking Maximum Compensation

An adult or small child can drown in as little as a couple of inches of water, and for this reason all types of bodies of water are dangerous. Whether the drowning involved a small child in a small wading pool at daycare, or a spa/hot tub accident, or if the drowning involved a pool drain cover accident, or a summer camp drowning/accident, the accident was most likely the result of some form of negligence. The drowning accident attorneys at the firm can investigate the details of the incident in order to determine where legal liability falls and they can pursue maximum compensation from the legally liable party.

Because aquatic accidents are often deadly, the victims and their family members should be fully compensated for their loss and for the toll such accidents take on the family. Not only that, but whoever is legally responsible needs to be brought to justice so that more people aren't harmed in the future. The legal team at the firm can handle everything for you so you and your family can focus on picking up the pieces after this tragedy. The best interests of your family are always at the forefront of all that the firm does, and they will stop at nothing to pursue ample compensation so your family can attempt to move on after the aquatic injury or death.