Drowning Doesn’t Look Like Drowning

http://mariovittone.com/2010/05/154/ ^ | Mario

[ventanax5]

The new captain jumped from the cockpit, fully dressed, and sprinted through the water. A former lifeguard, he kept his eyes on his victim as he headed straight for the owners who were 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 ten feet away, their nine-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 fifty feet away, what the father couldn’t recognize from just ten? Drowning is not the violent, splashing, call for help that most people expect.

[Tammy8]

I was surprised that my husband thought the whole thing was an overreaction. He said the kid would have passed out and survived.

I have a grandson that "passed out and survived" a near drowning when he was two. He spent months in a coma and is now in his twenties with skills of a baby. Surviving is not the only issue.

[SZonian]

As an ex-Lifeguard, this article is spot on as well as many of the subsequent comments.

Forwarded to family, friends and our local Scout office to distribute via their e-mail list.

This one will get mass distribution pretty quickly.

Thanks for posting it.

[netmilsmom]

Exactly.
I’m so sorry about your grandson.