Posted on 07/09/2010 8:16:57 AM PDT by 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. 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 knows 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.
(Excerpt) Read more at mariovittone.com ...
Sounds like good advice but not in the “washing machine” I was in! It was fast and furious. God alone saved me, I am sure of that. I wasn’t ready to leave the world at that time.
I don’t live in HI any more and if I did, I’d swim in the safe small wave beaches. I’m now closer to 60 than - well, than 59, and haven’t swam in for ten years.
But looks like good advice for a lake or pond.
And how a 100lb-nothing cute girl can easily kick the stuffin out of a 300lb bad guy. Heck, in the movies/TV, ANY little girl can kick the stuffin out of any man.
Sounds as if you were in a jetty. Those are tough. Been rafting a couple of times. Some people would actually get off the boats and walk to the park. One couple walked through poison oak. She was pretty bad off. My younger brother, who was/is a water rat got her out of the water.
Been in the water most of my life. My mom, believe it or not, was the oldest lifeguard in the U.S. about ten years ago at the Newport Beach WYMCA. We’re all swimmers.
Pure panic/adrenaline. Like a woman or a man can pick up the back end of a car to save their child.
I read your post incorrectly. So sorry.
No worries. Cheers.
Thank you and God bless you.
Thanks for the ping.
Reminds me of an incident, many years ago, at one of the popular Florida water parks. My young daughter would jump off a low diving board into the water where I was waiting, treading water. Then she would swim to the side of the pool, get out, and repeat...
Below the board was a huge water bubble...little did I realize how strong the bubbling water was. About the second time she jumped, I was yelling to the lifeguard for help, trying to get her out from the force of the bubbling water surrounding her. I couldn’t get her past the huge bubble into the calm water of the pool.
The lifeguard looked over to us a few times...in spite of my screams for help, never did a thing. Panicked, I knew it was up to me, and I finally gave her one big push, and she was free. Never again did we go back into that pool.
“if it were as awful as shown on TV, I’d remain childless.”
You are one of the lucky ones. As a nurse, many of the deliveries I’ve seen on TV, are realistic. I swear, if men gave birth, modern medicine would come up with a much easier and pain-free way to deliver a baby.
“The first thing you do, as I remember from MY training, is to strip to your shorts before you go rushing into the water.”
Did you see any TV reporting on the “Ride the Ducks” tragedy in Philly a few days ago? A barge struck the disabled Duck boat, flipped it over and all the passengers were in the water...
The video showed a police officer, who happened to be on the shore, jump into the water to help. My first thought was to see if he at least took his slacks off...he didn’t.
There were 35 or 37 on board. Two Hungarian tourists, ages 16 and 20, drowned. They recovered their bodies a few days later.
I’ve been on that boat. Once the Duck enters the water from the land, you are not required to don a life vest, although they are available.
Cheers!
bump
Thank you for posting this.
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