Sports Direct-owned gym blames former model's heatstroke sauna death on 'alcohol use and medication' as it fights £100k lawsuit by her actress daughter
A gym owned by Sports Direct has blamed an ex-model's sauna death on alcohol and medication as it battles a £100,000 lawsuit brought by her actress daughter.
Mileva Brooks, 75-year-old mother of TV comedy actress Milanka Brooks, died after suffering heatstroke at an Everlast gym in Cheltenham in August 2022.
Her daughter, who starred in TV sitcoms Benidorm, The Windsors and My Family as well as satire Black Mirror, is suing the Sports Direct-owned gym chain at London's High Court.
A coroner's inquest in September 2023 found the pensioner died three days after being rushed to hospital when other gym users alerted staff that she had collapsed in the sauna and was experiencing breathing difficulties.
But in their defence to the action lodged at London 's High Court, SportsDirect.Com Fitness Ltd deny any blame.
And they claim Mileva Brooks 'had a documented history of substance abuse, including but potentially not limited to alcoholism, along with medical conditions consistent with the use of prescribed medication'.
Milanka, 41, found fame starring in a number of TV sitcoms after being cast in multi award-winning BBC1 sitcom My Family in 2000 after graduating from drama school.
She had a regular role in ITV's Benidorm, playing Johnny Vegas' fiancée Ionela, as well as portraying Princess Svetlana in Channel 4's Royal family parody The Windsors and Nigel Planer's wife Elena in 2014 BBC2 comedy Boomers.
She then found success in a high-profile role as a blue-faced alien crew member, Elena Tulaska, in the multi-Emmy Award winning Black Mirror episode called USS Callister in 2017.
She has described her mother Mileva as her 'best friend in the world'.
Mileva collapsed and died after using the sauna at the Everlast gym, in Henrietta Street in Cheltenham, on August 26 2022, having joined the gym six months earlier.
Roland Wooderson, assistant coroner for Gloucestershire, recorded a narrative verdict after an inquest in 2023.
She said the former model had 'died from the effects of heatstroke' after being 'found unresponsive in the sauna of the gym'.
He had earlier heard medical evidence that Mileva's body temperature was 39.2C when measured by paramedics attending the scene.
According to legal documents filed at London's High Court, Ms Brooks is now suing the gym's owners, claiming 'damages in excess of £50,000, but limited to £100,000'.
The action comes in her role as administrator of her mother's estate for 'personal injury and consequential losses' and under the Fatal Accidents Act 1976.
But in a defence now lodged with the court by Natalie Green for Sports Direct, the company claims the staff at the gym did nothing wrong.
Ms Green said: 'The deceased had a documented history of substance abuse, including but potentially not limited to alcoholism, along with medical conditions consistent with the use of prescribed medication.'
She added that a post-mortem had found traces of the antidepressant lorazepam and epilepsy drugs clobazam and lamotrigine in Mileva's system.
The barrister said there had been a sign outside the sauna stating conditions of safe use, including: 'Do not use the sauna if you suffer from epilepsy.'
She added: 'The defendant replies upon the totality of the said signages' content, in particular the full list of conditions mandating non-use of the sauna, which include those relating to prior alcohol use and or medication impacting on the advisability of sauna use.
'By the publication of such guidance to its members, the defendant acted reasonably in the discharge of its duty of care.
'In the alternative, should breach of duty be proved against the defendant, the court may be invited to reduce any award of damages on account of the deceased's contributory negligence.
'The deceased suffered from temporal epilepsy and therefore should not have been using the sauna.'
Ms Green added that the gym group would be calling for expert evidence 'as to the potential effects of any prescribed or controlled substances or alcohol in her system at the point of accessing the sauna'.
She also claimed that a member of staff checked the sauna twice during the time the former model was in there and saw no cause for concern.
She added: 'The deceased was recorded on CCTV as having entered the sauna at 14.15. The CCTV coverage of the wet areas did not include the interior of the sauna for reasons of privacy and practicality.
'(But) the contemporaneous evidence indicated that the deceased was lying down on an upper bench throughout her time in the sauna on a towel with her eyes closed and her head supported by a foam pool weight. It is a position consistent with normal sauna use.
'It is clear from the contemporaneous evidence that a visual check into the sauna would have been unlikely to have elicited any cause for alarm.
'It is not admitted that the deceased was slumped in the sauna. The deceased was lying in a conventional position for sauna use and concern was only raised as to the manner of her breathing just prior to the alarm being raised at 15.15.
'At 15.00 the deceased continued to lie in a normal position for a sauna user. The index incident is unique in the history of the defendant's operation of gym and spa facilities.
'The sauna in question was less than a year old at the material time and there was no evidence that the sauna was defective.
'Members were provided with comprehensive guidance as to their safe use of the sauna and there was in place an alarm button,' the Sports Direct barrister said.
In online posts, Milanka Brooks has spoken repeatedly of the close relationship she enjoyed with her mother - calling her 'the light and inspiration of my life,' her 'partner in crime' and 'best friend in the world'.
In 2020, Frasers Group, the Sports Direct parent company, bought a number of DW Sports Fitness locations out of administration and started the Everlast Gyms chain.
By late 2023, they had nearly 60 branches located across the UK.
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