The new captain jumped from the deck, fully dressed, and sprinted through the water. A former lifeguard, he kept his eyes on his victim as he headed straight for the couple swimming between their anchored sportfisher and the beach. “I think he thinks you’re drowning,” the husband said to his wife. They had been splashing each other and she had screamed but now they were just standing, neck-deep on the sand bar. “We’re fine; what is he doing?” she asked, a little annoyed. “We’re fine!” the husband yelled, waving him off, but his captain kept swimming hard. ”Move!” he barked as he sprinted between the stunned owners. Directly behind them, not 10 feet away, their 9-year-old daughter was drowning. Safely above the surface in the arms of the captain, she burst into tears, “Daddy!”
How did this captain know—from 50 feet away—what the father couldn’t recognize from just 10? Drowning is not the violent, splashing call for help that most people expect. The captain was trained to recognize drowning by experts and years of experience. The father, on the other hand, had learned what drowning looks like by watching television. If you spend time on or near the water (hint: that’s all of us) then you should make sure that you and your crew know what to look for whenever people enter the water. Until she cried a tearful, “Daddy,” she hadn’t made a sound. As a former Coast Guard rescue swimmer, I wasn’t surprised at all by this story. Drowning is almost always a deceptively quiet event. The waving, splashing, and yelling that dramatic conditioning (television) prepares us to look for is rarely seen in real life.
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Once at OC,a woman was splashing about and going under in 4'deep of water while her kids watched on,I went over and pulled her up but she would have drowned.
ReplyDeleteI once saved a toddler who had gone under the water in a kiddie pool right behind her mother. There was no lifeguard there.There was so much noise there the lady didn't hear her child. The mother didn't even thank me.
ReplyDeleteYou should have dunked her 9:13.
DeleteI saved my friends son.. she was too far out to get him when a wave knocked him down and he couldn't get up and they kept crashing down on him.. but once I was able to get him standing.. a huge wave came over both of us and I went under with him this time.. so by the time I was able to stand up my top had come completely off and my bottoms were like half way down lol.. I didn't realize it until everyone was pointing lol.. but hey atleast I saved a life.. naked and all!!
ReplyDeleteAre you single and hot?
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