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 ...
Must read.
Sort of reminds me of the fake drowning scene from Sandlot.
If Hollywood ran the world, that alone would be a felony.
And if your middle name happened to be Wayne...
I’m sure this is embellishment to help illustrate the Captain’s sense or urgency, but I agree, he should have at least kicked off his shoes!
I just recalled the terror I felt when my airway was
blocked by phlegm (bronchitis). It’s like nothing else
I can recall. I was just able to move enough to unblock
it. If drowning is like that, one has indeed about 10
to 30 seconds to act.
It should be passed along to anyone and everyone you know who is around or on the water.
Thank heavens for email, so easy to distribute information like this.
Decent swimmers can’t fake drownings. They know how to keep their head up to well.
Never say never.
Make an exception to your rule this time.
Really.
Take a look at The Last Psychiatrist’s blog.
http://www.thelastpsychiatrist.com
Is there a FR keyword like whyTVisbad? if not
we need one.
The original blog site worked fine to me in lynx.
Thread Hi-jack in progress....
Lifesaving information BUMP
I can remember being rescued when I was young. I remember seeing these 2 girls sitting on the edge of the pool 3 feet away totally oblivious to my struggle. Fortunately, the lifeguard was also my babysitter and was on the lookout for me - and her station was about 75 feet away!
Thanks for this!
Very timely and informative - I posted it to my facebook.
Instead of bumping hit report abuse
“fully dressed *may* have meant a t-shirt and shorts.
boat shoes kick off easily.
I was caught in a riptide at the beach in LA, but I didn’t realize it because of the wave action. It felt like I was moving forward, but I was being dragged back. A lifeguard spotted me and pulled me out. I was not yet in danger, but he saw a situation that I wasn’t aware of, that could have gotten worse quickly.
Drowning does not look like drowning, and humans are not amphibians. Interesting article.
Those of us involved in gun rights know exactly what you're talking about: "High powered" assault rifles, "Cop killer" bullets, shooting the gun out of the bad guy's hand. What's worse is that our idiot lawmakers believe that fluff. We've got laws here in California that are based on what legislators saw in kung fu movies back in the '70s. Ever wonder why things like Japanese shuriken are illegal here?
I hope I'm not hijacking the thread
Next stop, FReeper Island!
I never knew this, null and void. Does that mean I watch too much TV?
Kidding aside, good article. Will file this info in my brain.
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