Brain-Damaged Woman to Get $7M From New York County

Erie County will pay $7 million to settle a lawsuit filed by a woman who suffered brain damage after she nearly drowned in a public pool two years ago.

The Buffalo News reported on Wednesday that the payment will settle Jannette Morales’ personal-injury lawsuit that blamed the county for not properly training or supervising lifeguards at the city-owned pool that Erie County operated at the time.

Morales, then 37, was pulled out of the water by her son after he found her floating in the crowded pool on a summer afternoon in August 2009. According to the lawsuit and court documents, two lifeguards on duty failed to see she was in trouble and didn’t help the son as he tried to rescue her.