Emily Hamlin collapsed in a bathroom stall of the women’s locker room of a health club.
Another woman, Stephanie Dick, heard her fall and quickly ran to the front desk to tell employees.
But there wasn’t a female employee there and the man on duty, Sean Higgins refused to go into the ladies locker room.
“He said he was the only one working there and that a girl was expected to come in, but he didn’t know when she would be there.”
In a sworn affidavit Dick told the court “he said he didn’t know what to do and that he wasn’t allowed to go into the ladies’ bathroom.”
That decision proved critical as Hamlin died minutes later.
No cause of death has been announced.
Hamlin’s family has filed a lawsuit against the Planet Fitness in Long Island, New York
“I want to know why no one helped her!” Hamlin’s mother told the New York Post.
“He could have simply called 911! It’s baffling to me.”
Video footage shows two women trying to get Higgins to act and he’s seen calmly looking at a computer during the incident.
Higgins called 911 nearly five minutes after Hamlin collapsed and a female employee with CPR training found the girl with a weak pulse.
Emergency workers arrived a few minutes later and Hamlin was declared dead shortly afterwards.