Officials Launch Probe Into Drowning of Student
La Mirada’s Biola University has launched an investigation into how a student with a seizure disorder drowned Saturday at the campus pool and went unnoticed by the lifeguard on duty.
Freshman John Ha, 21, was discovered on the bottom of the pool by another swimmer who pulled him to the surface, where the lifeguard administered CPR. Ha was taken to Whittier General Hospital and pronounced dead on arrival. Administrators of the 3,000-student private Christian college estimated he was underwater for less than three minutes.
They also described Ha, from the east San Gabriel Valley, as an experienced swimmer. He was at the Olympic-size pool during an open swim time. About 30 people were in the area.
The certified lifeguard patrols the pool from the deck and not from an elevated platform, he said.
The county coroner has ruled Ha’s death an accidental drowning “with an underlying cause of seizure disorder.”
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