A bodybuilder who collapsed in the shower of a 24-hour gym and was not discovered for 15 hours has died two weeks later, after being put into an induced coma.
Giuliano Pirone was training for a bodybuilding competition when he fell and suffered a brain injury in the locked shower cubicle of a gym in the northern Perth suburb of Wanneroo on August 20.
He had gone to the gym before work and was not discovered until later that night when police barged in and found him on the floor of a cold-running shower.
He had been on life support at Joondalup hospital for two weeks, but died on Thursday morning.
Mr Pirone never regained consciousness and an MRI confirmed he had lost brain function.
‘I will never look at the Sun, the Moon and the sky the same way again, the light that shone bright has left me,’ his mother Daniela Pirone told ABC Radio Perth.
Doctors believe Mr Pirone’s blood sugar levels became very low, causing his blood pressure to drop, and said he may have had a seizure.
His mum said he had stopped at the gym on his way to work, and when he did not return home or return calls later that day she started to panic.
Giuliano Pirone (pictured) collapsed in the shower of a 24-hour gym after training
Police were able to track Mr Pirone’s phone when his mother reported her son missing to them
The family tried to contact Mr Pirone’s friends, ex-wife and people he talked to everyday, but no one had heard from him.
‘It was very unusual, completely out of character,’ Ms Pirone previously told the ABC.
His mother reported him missing to the police, they were able to ping his phone and tracked him down at the gym.
‘The police had to barge in, they found him in the shower (with the cold water running) he was slanted on the floor collapsed,’ she said.
‘They thought he was dead.’
Ms Pirone said police officers performed CPR and her son quickly became conscious, before an ambulance rushed him to hospital.
‘The officer who was handling everything, came and picked me and my husband up and took us straight to the hospital, and that’s where I’ve been ever since,’ she said.
Ms Pirone said the gym shower where her son was found was a cubicle with a locked door.
‘He was in there and they had to smash the door down to get him,’ she said.
‘He messaged a friend at 7.03am and wasn’t found until about 10.30pm. I got to the hospital about 12pm.
‘He was alone, my beautiful son was alone on that floor slanted, collapsed (and had) smashed his head, for about 15 hours and no one noticed anything. I am just dumbfounded.’
Mr Pirone (pictured) has died in Joondalup hospital two weeks after the incident
Mr Pirone’s mother said 24-hour gyms are dangerous, and called for a check-in system
Ms Pirone said 24-hour unstaffed gyms were a danger and more needed to be done to check on patrons who used the facilities.
She said her son had checked in at 4.55am and his car was parked by the front door, but no one noticed anything.
‘There should be a check in system, so after two or three hours if they have not checked out staff look around for that person,’ she said.
The WA Police have already accessed CCTV footage from the gym and will now prepare a report for the coroner.
