A UK-based Nigerian IT analyst in a hospital,Babatunde Plumtre, died after the weight-lifting equipment he was using collapsed and a 60kg barbell dropped on to him.
Following the investigation conducted, the South London coroner’s court heard, the deceased who worked at Charing Cross Hospital, had been exercising that morning when a barbell “crashed” down on to his stomach at the Better Gym in Bexley health.
The 39–year–old IT analyst had told fellow gym users he did not need an ambulance after the incident but he was found rolling on the floor in an agonizing pain in the changing room some minutes later.
“He was lying on a work bench with the back of it slightly up and it suddenly collapsed down and the weights came down on his upper abdomen and lower chest, unfortunately he suffered a lacerated liver and spleen and died that day despite medical treatment,”said Coroner Sarah Ormond-Walshe.
At the hearing yesterday was Babtunde’s brother. The five-day inquest, in front of a jury, will hear evidence from the gym managers, weight-lifting equipment suppliers Service and Repairs Solutions, and Bexley council’s health and safety department.
