‘Fit and healthy’ student, 21, collapsed and died late at night in PureGym while first aid-trained staff member did not answer knocks on their door because he was wearing headphones and couldn’t hear, inquest is told

• Henry Best, 21, collapsed and died an hour into a workout at a PureGym in Bristol
• The first aider was wearing headphones and didn’t hear knocks at their door
• Mr Best died from pre-existing but previously undiagnosed heart condition 

A ‘fit and healthy’ student collapsed and died late at night in a PureGym, while gymgoers couldn’t get the attention of a first aider because they were wearing headphones, an inquest was told.

Henry Best collapsed at the Bristol gym at 11:30pm, when paramedics arrived they struggled to get into the building and once inside they couldn’t initially find him. 

However a coroner ruled that the 21-year-old, who died from an undiagnosed heart condition, would probably not have been saved even if paramedics had reached him more quickly.

The ‘teetotal’ and ‘active’ music student suffered a cardiac arrest at the gym’s Harbourside branch in Bristol on January 10 this year.

The only employee on site was a first aid-trained cleaner, but gym users couldn’t find him as he did not respond to knocks on his door because he was wearing headphones and couldn’t hear, Avon Coroner’s Court heard.

Assistant coroner Peter Harrowing recorded a conclusion that Mr Best died of natural causes.

Dr Harrowing said there was no need for a narrative verdict at the end of an inquest that lasted for a day and a half.

And the coroner said there was no need for him to make recommendations to prevent future deaths, after hearing that PureGym had ‘learned lessons’.

‘Fit and healthy’ Henry Best, 21, died after collapsing at a PureGym in Bristol in January due to a previously undiagnosed heart condition, an inquest heard

The company has made changes to the way its gyms operate late in the evening, following a report into the tragedy by Bristol City Council’s health and safety officers.

The inquest heard Mr Best was a teetotal, fit, healthy and active music student who helped run swimming lessons for primary school children and went to the gym regularly.

The coroner heard how Mr Best collapsed from a pre-existing but previously undiagnosed heart condition around an hour into a workout at the gym with his girlfriend Holly Jones.

The couple had gone to the gym together at around 10:30pm that evening and Mr Best collapsed in a room on the fourth floor of the building at around 11:30pm.

Mr Best’s family were represented in the inquest, as was PureGym, after concerns were raised by the family about staffing, signage, and the ability for paramedics called to the scene to reach Mr Best.

The inquest heard paramedics were in an ambulance nearby and after being dispatched at 11:31pm, they arrived outside the front of the gym at 11:35pm, but took another six minutes to reach him, after spending a minute or so retrieving equipment from the back of the ambulance.

A coroner ruled that Henry Best would probably not have been saved even if paramedics had reached him more quickly

The distressing scenes inside the gym were explained in a series of statements from other gym users who were there and tried to help, and from the paramedics themselves.

The inquest heard that Miss Jones dialled 999 immediately and, under the instruction of the emergency call handlers, administered CPR to Mr Best for ten minutes before the paramedics took over.

Two other gym users in the area at the time came to help, and went off to try to find a member of staff. At the time, the only member of staff on the premises was a first aid-trained cleaner.

PureGym is open at other times when it is completely unstaffed and, in those circumstances, there would have been signs up and tannoy announcements informing people that there was an emergency system.

The gym, which often operates unstaffed through the night, has an emergency button in most rooms and corridors, signs with a phone number to connect to a central operations room, and there was a defibrillator on the same floor as the room where Mr Best collapsed.

On the evening Mr Best collapsed, tannoy messages explaining emergency procedures were playing every 15 minutes, the inquest heard.

A first aid trained cleaner was in the gym (pictured) but didn’t hear knocks on their door as they were wearing headphones

At the time, the presence of the cleaner, who was first aid trained, meant the gym was designated as ‘staffed’. The two men who came to help went looking for a staff member at the gym but did not find anyone.

The inquest heard that when paramedics arrived, they could not initially get into the building and had to phone up the emergency number on the door to connect to the control centre to gain access, and once inside, walked around calling out trying to find Mr Best, even phoning back to ask if they were in the right place.

Within minutes, one gym user did come down to meet them on the ground floor and take them to Mr Best, and they arrived at the scene in that room at 11:41pm.

The inquest heard that CCTV evidence revealed the cleaner had gone into a cleaning cupboard at 11:19pm, and had told council health and safety investigators that he had been wearing headphones.

CCTV footage viewed by police showed that one gym member, who was looking for a member of staff to help Mr Best, knocked on the cleaning cupboard door at 11:38pm, but the cleaner had not responded.

CCTV showed the cleaner left the cleaning cupboard at 11:46pm and continued working – completely unaware of the medical emergency on the fourth floor.

Dr Harrowing said that, on the balance of probabilities, the lack of a member of staff present in the room with Mr Best did not change the outcome, since at the point the gym user knocked on that cleaning cupboard door, the paramedics were already on the scene.

He said the gym’s staffing policy late at night was not ‘like a lifeguard in a fixed position’, and that the person there working was primarily as a cleaner.

Rachel Lyne, representing PureGym, said that the report from Bristol City Council’s health and safety department did set out ‘a level of confusion’ that existed at the time around whether the gym was staffed, and made recommendations around what the status of a ‘manned’ or ‘unmanned’ gym were.

She said PureGym had learned lessons and made changes to the way their gyms operate at night and said they no longer classified a gym as being ‘staffed’ if there was just a cleaner on site.

In that circumstance, the procedures for the gym being ‘unstaffed’ were activated, including the tannoy announcements, signs and messages on screens advising users that the gym was unstaffed.

In reaching his conclusion, Dr Harrowing said he ‘made no criticism’ of the men in the gym who did not activate the emergency button or call the gym’s emergency number, or find the defibrillator, but instead searched the building looking for a member of staff.

Dr Harrowing said: ‘I have presided over enough inquests to know that members of the public may not always react in an ideal manner in such stressful circumstances and I make no criticism of these individuals who were there with Holly.’

On the need for a coroner’s recommendation to prevent further deaths, Dr Harrowing said: ‘I agree there were some issues relating to staffing but on the balance of probabilities, it wasn’t causative or contributory to the death of Mr Best.

‘Changes have been made. I do not consider it necessary to make recommendations. I welcome the actions taken by PureGym in this respect.’

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