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Posted on 01/05/2023 10:07:38 PM PST by blueplum
Peyton Hillis, the former star running back for the Cleveland Browns, is reportedly unconscious and in an ICU after saving his children from drowning in the ocean in Florida.
Hillis saved his children from a swimming accident in Pensacola, Florida and was helicoptered to a local hospital, according to KNWA. They added that his breathing 'is improving.'
A post on Facebook believed to be from Hillis's uncle says Peyton is 'doing better'....
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Best wishes for this hero.
Doing what a man has to do.
Well said.
This reminds me of Joe Delaney. He tried to help some drowning kids in a Amusement Park pool. Joe couldn’t even swim he drown to death. But he saved some kids. However, one died in the hospital and another drown with Joe. Joe Delaney was a running back with the Kansas City Chiefs for two seasons during 81-83.
He passed on June 29th of 1983. He also played at northwestern. It’s nearly 40 years since tragic drowning. Posthumously he was elected into the College Football Hall of Fame.
It was a Amusement center and a local park. Not a pool but a creek.
Checked his online image. Why is it that Blacks often can't swim? Even professional athletes?!
Regards,
One black friend of mine, in boy scouts, had so little body fat that he literally could not float/sunk like a rock even when exerting himself not to. It was amazing to watch.
I’ve also heard that in Navy SEALs training, guys with a modest amount of insulation can swim and endure the cold water, better.
This is common knowledge.
Regards,
*Why is it that Blacks often can’t swim? *
If parents can’t swim, they can’t teach their children to swim. Those children grow up to be adults who are embarassed to admit they can’t swim and don’t take lessons so they can’t teach their own kids. Rinse and repeat.
I didn’t swim until I was 10 after I almost drowned at a base pool party and my dad was ordered to enroll us kids in Red Cross lessons toot sweet. Although I learned basic lifeguard lifessaving techniques, no way could I do that now. Until that age, tho, I’d never been exposed to water deeper than a kiddy pool
Probably less than a quarter are able to assist someone else in distress or control the situation. Drowning people panic and want to climb on top of you and if you can’t get them to calm down, trust you, and roll on their backs (or nowadays, grab onto the rescue donut or float) so you can assist, you’ll get drowned, too (as my hard-core instructor made quite clear to me- several times!)
THis is probably overkill but for general info:
According to a Slate article in 2010, being able to swim coorelated with income level, the higher the poverty level the less kids could swim. Maybe that has to do with parents always working so no leisure time, or lack of a community pool/free lessons.
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2010/08/how-many-americans-can-t-swim.html
According to the Red Cross in 2014, half of swimmers couldn’t pass a basic self-safety test. Somewhere between 1/3 and 1/2 of Americans couldn’t swim the length of a pool
https://www.today.com/health/more-half-americans-cant-swim-well-enough-save-themselves-can-2D79689254
This hasn’t changed much in 8 years - with only 56% able to self-rescue.
https://leisureswimmer.com/what-percentage-population-can-swim/
Yeah, saving a drowning person is the worst. You’ll get clawed in the face and kicked in the groin because they’re in such a life and death panic
All good points. When I was about 12 I was already a good swimmer and had been on the swim team and could swim five miles on a practice morning. My Boy Scout Lifesaving class was very thorough and started out with two days of “Drown Proofing.” We then learned self rescue /survival and then how to assist a drowning person even to the point of surviving a fighter.
One of the things you are taught in basic water life saving is that when people are in that wild panic mode, BACK OFF. Let them even take a gulp of water and “recede” a little into less aggressive state. It is counter intuitive, but it may save both of your lives. I was a competitive swimmer in my youth and regularly swam a mile for endurance building. Took the “official” (can’t remember who sponsored it, think it was Red Cross) life saving course. You back off,tread water from a distance where the person is flailing, talk to them (maybe they will settle down), and if they continue to lunge and panic, LET THEM GO until you can safely get behind them and securely get them and drag them in. Seems both heartless and risky, but better than both of you drowning.
My mom couldn’t swim and almost drowned as a kid. She never did learn to swim but she absolutely INSISTED that all of her kids learn, and forced us all to take swimming lessons. I’m glad she did.
Back 15 years ago, I ran a church summer pool program.
I took a management course from the Y.
They taught us to be especially vigilant about Africa Americans.
It is well known they have the really bad combination of nobody in the family swimming and total fearlessness around water.
Sure enough, the only people pulled out of the pool that summer were blacks.
Pensacola = Gulf of Mexico ... no waves ...
Agree. That is what men are supposed to do. Which means he should never be a politician.
Can you imagine Chuck Schumer doing that? He would have his staffer risk their lives, but not him.
Prayers for Hillis. He had one great season (2010).
I actually remember how you escape the grasp of a drowning person if they “spin around” and clutch you around the neck. Take a gulp of air, and GO UNDERWATER. Usually the panicked person will immediately let go, because all that is in their conscious thought is getting above water. If they don’t, I remember the instructor showing us how to push your arms up and shove their grasp over your head while simultaneously putting your knee in their midsection (though I have to say the boys all had a knowing wink for each other that said “yeah, if it is a guy I am going to knee him right in the balls, forget about this ‘midsection’ stuff”). I in fact remember my instructor’s name, Delbe Hilleke. Super sweet girl. She later married a pastor. It was a great course. Still remember all the salient points years later.
Navy boot camp in Orlando, 1971...many black guys struggled while in the pool practicing skills we were supposed to learn in order to graduate. Most did eventually.
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