A female bank worker drowned in a pool party at the Yacht Club in Causeway Bay in 2014, a month before her 22nd birthday. The lifeguard had warned people not to bring any alcohol into the pool but no one listened. The catering department head agreed with the family’s lawyer that the scene was like an orgy.
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The father of the dead woman Tai Sze-Man said his daughter had come home for a short rest before going out. She also told her mother that she would join the pool party. But he didn't know whether Tai knew how to swim though she had taken swimming lessons before. He said Tai had not been known to have any enemies.
The head of the catering department Chow Kam Ho testified that the party was very loud and she asked the organizer to turn down the volume, but it was later turned up again. She described the participants as being very naughty. She also pointed out that many people were holding wine glasses in the pool. The lawyer representing Tai's family asked whether it looked like an orgy, and she agreed.
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The lifeguard Lau Shue-Kei who saved Tai said people who drank alcohol were not allowed to get in the pool on normal days and even during the party. He warned the party-goers as he saw people drinking. Nobody paid attention to his warning. Asked whether the volume on the site was too loud to hear people talking on the site, he replied as a little bit. During the party, he did not hear of someone's call for help and didn't see the dead woman. It was until the end of the party that he saw someone at the bottom of the pool without any bubbles when he suspected she was drowned. He then entered the water for rescue.
When he was doing a cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) from tenth to fifteenth times, the drown woman vomited blood. He was then pushed by two foreigners who claimed themselves that they knew CPR and taken over from the rescue. He said she had slight pulse but did not open her eyes.
A friend of the dead woman Wu Pui-Yi (direct translation from Chinese) said she invited her to come to the party as she knew it from Facebook. They dressed in swimming suits with a life ring at the party's request. They didn't know swimming well so they avoided the area with a great depth of water. She said she drank a few cups of white and red wine, which was her normal alcohol consumption. They met different new people in the party so they separated and never saw each other again. Wu admitted that some memories were fake due to the consumption of alcohol.
Ruttonjee Hospital Intensive Care Unit Doctor Yeung Wai-Tak (direct translation from Chinese) testified that the dead woman did not have heartbeat along the way to hospital. She once got heartbeats but the rescue was in vain after all. He said the cause of death was drowning, which led to multiple organ failure. He revealed that alcohol was recorded in her blood. Another doctor also confirmed that the anatomy report showed that she suffered serious pulmonary edema and bleeding. These syndromes matched with the drown one. Both doctors could not tell the estimated time of drowning.
The case happened on August 16 in 2014. While Tai was joining a poolside party held by the Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club in Causeway Bay with around 120 people, she was found unconscious in the swimming pool at around one o'clock at the midnight. She was certified as dead after sending to Ruttonjee Hospital in the evening of August 18.