Jul 14, 2007 4:00 pm US/Central
Club Apologizes For Silence After Pool Accident
St. Louis Park, Minn. (AP) ―
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Abigail Taylor remains in serious condition at Children's Hospital in Minneapolis, and is expected to need a feeding tube for the rest of her life.
CBS
The wading pool at the Minneapolis Golf Club where a 6-year-old girl was severely injured has been closed and the club has apologized for not communicating more with members and the public following the accident.
The club, located in St. Louis Park, said Friday that the wading pool will remain closed for the season or longer until investigators determine exactly what went wrong June 29 when Abigail Taylor sat on the drain and the suction pulled out her intestines.
Abigail remains in serious condition at Children's Hospital in Minneapolis, and is expected to need a feeding tube for the rest of her life.
"We are all struck with tremendous sorrow and grief," said the e-mail from Gretchen Koehn, president of the club's executive committee. "We are deeply saddened over the accident and are hoping and praying for Abigail's well-being," Koehn wrote.
"We can't stress enough that the club's limited communication to you or the general public should not be misinterpreted as a lack of compassion," she wrote.
Koehn said the club's lawyers have advised officials to limit what they say because "we do not have all the details yet" and the accident remains under investigation.
Robert Bennett, the lawyer for the girl's family, has blamed the accident on a drain cover that wasn't properly attached.
The club said it has several insurance policies but isn't certain that they will be sufficient. It has hired a team of legal and communications experts, it said, to "help us prepare for the potential outcome of an accident of this magnitude."
The club said its main swimming pool was reinspected after the accident and has reopened.
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Abbey's Hope Charitable Foundation, named for Abigail, was started to safeguard kids, both in and out of the pool, against preventable harm.
(© 2009 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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