A NEW YORK woman collapsed and died in a gym's bathroom because a male employee refused to enter the women's changing room to try to save her, a lawsuit claims.

Emily Hamlin, 22, was in a ladies’-room stall at a Planet Fitness on New York's Long Island during an early-morning workout when another gym member heard her drop to the floor, the legal papers reported by the New York Post say.

"I heard [a] flush, then a thud," the member, Stephanie Dick, recalled in a sworn affidavit about the February 2012 incident. "I saw a woman’s arm drop to the floor, followed immediately by a loud snoring sound."



Ms Dick said she dashed to the front desk and pleaded with gym employee Sean Higgins to help.

"He said he didn’t know what to do and that he wasn’t allowed to go into the ladies’ bathroom," Ms Dick said in her sworn affidavit.

As Ms Hamlin lay dying, Mr Higgins remained frozen and was "scared and confused and didn’t know what to do," Ms Dick said.

"He said he was the only one working there and that a girl was expected to come in, but he didn’t know when she would be there."

Ms Dick’s statement is part of a wrongful-death suit Ms Hamlin’s family is set to file in Suffolk County Supreme Court this week against the gym owners and Mr Higgins.

"I want to know why no one helped her!" Hamlin’s mother, Jeanine, 52, said tearfully last week in her home.

"He could have simply called 911! It’s baffling to me."

Video footage from the gym obtained by Hamlin family lawyer Scott Charnas shows Ms Hamlin entering the locker room at 5.08am. Nine minutes later, Ms Dick is seen at the front desk, imploring Mr Higgins.

Ms Dick said that, getting nowhere, she ran back to Ms Hamlin and pounded on her locked stall door. Another gym member heard and ran out to the front desk.

Video shows the second member waving her arms and pointing to the bathroom at 5.21am. Mr Higgins, at one point, is seen idly looking at a computer screen.

Mr Higgins picked up the phone to dial 911 4 1/2 minutes after learning of Ms Hamlin’s collapse, the video’s time stamp shows.

As Ms Dick talked to the 911 operator via mobile phone - 8 minutes after members alerted the front desk - another Planet Fitness employee, Kristin Smith, showed up in the locker room and "immediately" checked Ms Hamlin’s pulse, finding it "weak," the lawyer says.

Police arrived at 5.28am. Ms Hamlin was pronounced dead at 6.03am.

A Planet Fitness lawyer sent a letter to Mr Charnas saying the gym is not liable for Hamlin’s death.

Read more at the New York Post.