A manager at a Philadelphia-area Planet Fitness allegedly refused to allow good Samaritans to use the gym’s defibrillator on a man who suffered a heart attack outside, a lawsuit says.
Guy Harris, 46, died Jan. 22 after going into cardiac arrest near a Planet Fitness in Clifton Heights, Pennsylvania, according to the wrongful death suit filed by his wife Wednesday in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas.
A married father of two, Harris had been driving his 11-year-old son to get a snack after school when he started experiencing symptoms of a heart attack, prompting him to pull over, the legal complaint said. He parked a short distance from the entrance to the Planet Fitness, where he was a member, it said.
Harris’ son got out of the car, called 911 and pleaded for help from passersby, said the lawsuit, which was first reported by NBC News. The legal filing said that one bystander who worked in the medical field began CPR on Harris, while another told customers exiting Planet Fitness to go back inside to ask for the gym’s automated external defibrillator, or AED — a portable device that delivers an electric shock to try to restore a person’s heartbeat.
“Two Planet Fitness patrons returned to the club and requested the AED, indicating that a man was dying outside,” the lawsuit read. “Despite knowing about the life-or-death situation unfolding, the Planet Fitness club manager refused.”
The lawsuit names Planet Fitness Inc., which is headquartered in New Hampshire, and Keystone NFP Clifton LLC, the franchisee operator in Clifton Heights, as defendants. Neither immediately responded to NBC News’ requests for comment.
Harris’ wife, Taniqua Morene-Harris, declined to comment. An attorney for her said that the couple had been married for nearly 21 years and that Harris died the day before their son turned 12.
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