Rescue at the Pool Today
By Jeff Moffitt
@moffittjc (121540)
Gainesville, Florida
April 5, 2016 9:27pm CST
There was a lot of excitement (and fear, anxiety and nervousness) at our public swimming pool today, as my lifeguard staff had to perform a rescue on a swimmer who went unconscious in the water.
This particular patron was a teenage swimmer on a local club swim team, who was using our pool for practice. At the beginning of practice, she told the coach she wasn't feeling too great, so the coach told her she could either sit out of practice, or keep swimming but take it easy. She chose to keep swimming.
About halfway through a lap, her forward progress stopped and she went limp in the water. One of the lifeguards on duty recognized an emergency right away and activated the EAP (emergency action plan). The unconscious swimmer was pulled from the water quickly, and a quick check of her pulse and vital signs indicated she was alive and breathing.
Being that we have a fire station across the street from the pool, paramedics were able to arrive on site within a minute, and after examining the swimmer, made the decision to transport her to the hospital for further observation and testing.
The swimmer was very fortunate the lifeguard was paying close attention, as she did not inhale or ingest any water into her lungs, thus saving her from a potential drowning situation.
Thanks to the vigilance of a lifeguard, a young teenager will live to see another day.
17 people like this
18 responses
@GardenGerty (160611)
• United States
6 Apr 16
It sounds like your lifeguard team takes their job seriously and that is great. Glad there was not a worse result.
3 people like this
@moffittjc (121540)
• Gainesville, Florida
6 Apr 16
The sad thing is, this particular lifeguard was not one I had too much confidence in her skill level. However, she proved me wrong today and proved her worthiness to be considered a star guard on my staff. She will be honored at our next staff meeting for her quick thinking and excellent rescue skills.
2 people like this
@louievill (28851)
• Philippines
6 Apr 16
@moffittjc we will never know when it's somebody's time to shine
3 people like this
@firstteamm (26)
• Singapore, Singapore
6 Apr 16
Wow! A great story. Thanks for sharing. Lot of things went well there. You already mentioned the 1)alertness of the lifeguard. Maybe I start by listing one more thing I.e. #2)The girl told the lifeguard of her not feeling well in that exercise session, this surely allowed or made the lifeguard to keep a lookout for her
@moffittjc (121540)
• Gainesville, Florida
6 Apr 16
She didn't tell the lifeguard she didn't feel good, the girl told her coach she didn't feel good. The lifeguard was on the other side of the pool, so there was no way she could have heard the girl tell her coach that she wasn't feeling good.
@cherriefic (10399)
• Philippines
6 Apr 16
That's good that lifeguard was there. I hope she will learn her lesson not to swim if she's not feeling well.
2 people like this
@moffittjc (121540)
• Gainesville, Florida
6 Apr 16
I hope the doctors at the hospital can determine why she lost consciousness. That's not something that normally happens when a person doesn't feel good. There must be something more serious wrong with the girl.
2 people like this
@LadyDuck (471255)
• Switzerland
8 Apr 16
@moffittjc I hope she is fine, she has been lucky that the lifeguard was watching her.
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (121540)
• Gainesville, Florida
8 Apr 16
@LadyDuck Sometimes the emergencies we have at the pool aren't swimming or drowning related; often, it is other pre-existing conditions that people have that manifest themselves at the pool. My lifeguards are just the lucky ones who get to deal with people's emergencies! lol
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (121540)
• Gainesville, Florida
8 Apr 16
Apparently, when they took her to the hospital, she started having seizures, so they kept her for a few days to run a bunch of medical tests on her. I haven't heard the latest, her mom said she would give us updates as they found out more information.
2 people like this
@Morleyhunt (21744)
• Canada
6 Apr 16
That lifeguard was valiant. I have watched practices and the water can be full of activity.
2 people like this
@moffittjc (121540)
• Gainesville, Florida
6 Apr 16
As a certified lifeguard myself, I can tell you that sometimes our pools get so crowded that you almost panic at having to watch everyone. Fortunately, this incident happened today when there was very few people in the water at the time. Had it been busier, who knows how long it would have taken a lifeguard to recognize the emergency. But that is exactly why we train for stuff like this every single day.
2 people like this
@moffittjc (121540)
• Gainesville, Florida
8 Apr 16
We always preach to our staff the importance of doing bathroom inspections every 15-20 minutes, because one never knows where an actual emergency may take place. It's natural to think that at a swimming pool all the emergencies will happen in the water, but we have just as many happen on the pool deck and in the locker rooms.
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (121540)
• Gainesville, Florida
8 Apr 16
@JudyEv Obviously, for privacy reasons, we can't mount video cameras in our locker rooms, but for safety reasons we require our lifeguards to walk through the locker rooms and restrooms every 20-30 minutes. Part of that is for safety reasons, and part of that is for security reasons.
1 person likes this
@JudyEv (339431)
• Rockingham, Australia
8 Apr 16
@moffittjc I wouldn't have thought of locker room accidents but I guess running on wet floors is a pretty obvious one for starters.
1 person likes this
@jstory07 (139523)
• Roseburg, Oregon
6 Apr 16
@moffittjc That was probably scare y for her. I hope she is ok.
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (121540)
• Gainesville, Florida
6 Apr 16
She was conscious when she left for the hospital. The paramedics were concerned that they couldn't find a definitive reason for why she lost consciousness, so they wanted her to be examined more closely by a doctor. Her parents consented by phone to allow the ambulance to transport the girl to the hospital to be admitted overnight.
2 people like this
@moffittjc (121540)
• Gainesville, Florida
6 Apr 16
@jstory07 I think she'll be okay. But I expect that she may not want to return to the pool anytime soon though!
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (121540)
• Gainesville, Florida
8 Apr 16
They are still trying to figure it out, but while she was at the hospital she started having seizures. Not sure if the seizures were the cause of her passing out, or if it was the result of her passing out and hitting her head on the concrete floor.
1 person likes this
@CookieMonster46 (13454)
• United States
7 Apr 16
It is great she was rescued, sad she wasn't feeling good and still wanted to practice. I have never witnessed a life guard having to save anyone and that is a good thing.
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (121540)
• Gainesville, Florida
8 Apr 16
Unfortunately, I see lifeguards in action way too often. We have over 155,000 people swim at our pools each year, and our lifeguards have to perform about 300-350 rescues, and usually about 4-5 of them are extremely serious.
1 person likes this
@nanette64 (20364)
• Fairfield, Texas
6 Apr 16
Yeah, holy cow; I'd say that was a little too close for comfort @moffittjc . I hope the girl will be okay.
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (121540)
• Gainesville, Florida
8 Apr 16
I just hope they find out what's wrong with her so they can develop a treatment plan. She ended up having several seizures while she was at the hospital, and I don't know if they were something she was experiencing previously, or if it was the result of her passing out and falling and hitting her head on the concrete floor.
1 person likes this
@VivaLaDani13 (60794)
• Perth, Australia
22 May 16
oh my goodness! I am so glad that she was spotted in time! I hope she is doing much better now and hope that does not occur again. Especially in the water.
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (121540)
• Gainesville, Florida
23 May 16
I am just glad I had one of my better lifeguards on the stand when that happened.
1 person likes this
@TwixTwinz (169)
• Philippines
6 Apr 16
Thumbs up for that savior, One thing for other peeps Does mean you know how to swim it does mean you know how to save? Definitely not, It takes a lot of practice to lift and pull over the body of swimmer.
It happens to me when one of my classmate got a cramp on his foot so I tried to lift and pull her over to the side but I cant because she i too heavy to lift in water I admit that im not a very good swimmer and my other friends got shocked when they see and they are far from us so Good thing that there is a concerned guy help me to pull her over at the side and we used a back float style. I wish that it will not happen again.
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (121540)
• Gainesville, Florida
9 Apr 16
The ingestion of water into the lungs is always a concern of our lifeguard staff, even in non-drowning situations.
@carebear29 (31962)
• Wausau, Wisconsin
6 Apr 16
Sad to hear this. At least there was rescue right away
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (121540)
• Gainesville, Florida
8 Apr 16
She is resting comfortably know, although she's still in the hospital having tests done. Apparently, she had several seizures while she was at the hospital.
1 person likes this
