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Boy Injured in Home Spa Mishap Gets $4.95 Million

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Times Staff Writer

A 10-year-old boy who was partly paralyzed when he was sucked to the bottom of a home spa will receive $4.95 million under a settlement reached Friday in Orange County Superior Court.

“This gives Adam options for the future that he might not have had--to go to school, to have a career, to get the physical therapy and medical help he needs,” said Robyn Walters, the victim’s mother.

For the record:

12:00 a.m. Feb. 26, 1989 For the Record
Los Angeles Times Sunday February 26, 1989 Home Edition Part 1 Page 2 Column 5 Metro Desk 2 inches; 70 words Type of Material: Correction
A story in The Times last Sunday about a $4.9-million Orange County Superior Court settlement in a home spa accident case incorrectly stated that Blue Haven Pools and Spas was bankrupt. Actually, the Garden Grove company, which made the spa in which a 10-year-old boy was paralyzed when he was sucked to the bottom, is now out of business and was not a party to the settlement. The company was sold in 1984 to Earl Dexter Corp., which now operates the business as Blue Haven Pools and Spas of Orange County.

Adam Walters was sucked to the floor of the back-yard spa at his family’s home in Fountain Valley in September, 1984. Adam’s mother discovered the boy face down and underwater. As the boy’s two sisters and brother watched, his father tried to pull the boy free but could not overcome the spa’s suction and had to turn off the whirlpool.

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Although there has been no loss of intellectual capacities, Adam suffered damage to his motor skills, leaving him in a wheelchair with partial paralysis in his legs. He also has speech problems, has lost some use of one arm, and faces the increased risk of developing severe scoliosis--a curvature of the spine--that could require surgery.

His family sued Blue Haven, the makers of the spa system and the owners and real estate agents of the home that they were renting. The family maintained that the spa was dangerously designed because it had only one filter outlet instead of the customary two and because the drain cover had been missing.

Attorneys for the homeowners, Laurent and Francis Ingardia of Rancho, and the rental agency, Mathias Properties, said their clients agreed to settle the suit to avoid a costly court fight but maintain they were blameless. In bankruptcy, the spa makers were not part of the settlement.

Such accidents have been a concern in the hot tub industry although executives said last fall that they have solved the problem of excessive suction. Los Angeles County records showed that 10 people, including six children, drowned in hot tubs or spas in 1987.

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