Advertisement - Click to support our sponsors.

Lifeguard, 18,
drowns at Hawaiian
Waters park

---

By Jaymes Song
Star-Bulletin

A teen-age lifeguard died in Queen's Medical Center this morning after he was found submerged in a splash pool at Hawaiian Waters Adventure Park yesterday.

He apparently was trying to retrieve jewelry for a park patron, officials said.

A park supervisor found Harry "Rusty" Hoots, 18, of Waianae unconscious in about four feet of water at the bottom of a tube slide, according to Steve Mayer, the park's general manager.

A preliminary investigation by park officials and the Honolulu Police Department showed that a protective grate at the bottom of the pool, in place during normal business hours, had been removed, he said. Hoots apparently had been sucked into an intake pipe.

Firefighters arrived at 4:19 p.m. to find park employees administering CPR and using an automatic defibrillator on the unresponsive teen, said Capt. Richard Soo, spokesman for the Honolulu Fire Department.

City emergency workers also used a defibrillator on Hoots and were able to restore a heartbeat.

He was taken to St. Francis Medical Center in critical condition and later transferred to Queen's Medical Center.

Hoots had been employed at the park since April, Mayer said. He was a certified lifeguard who was well liked by his fellow employees, he said.

Mayer extended his "heartfelt sympathy on behalf of the entire staff and management of Hawaiian Waters, and extends condolences to the Hoots family."

The park was open today for regular operation, except for the area where the accident occurred. The accident was the first major one at the park since it opened in May 1999.