I got quite a shock this afternoon at the pool. I heard the lifeguard behind me sound two short blasts with her whistle, then a spash as she entered the water. I turned around to see her lifting a little boy, probably a little younger than L, out of the water, gasping and choking. She was only maybe 8 feet behind me. I watched as she carried him past me and up the steps out of the water. Lifeguards from all around the pool (except those with specific posts) decended upon them.
Another lifeguard met her at the edge of the pool, and only then did I bother to look around and wonder where his mother was. About then, a small voice behind me said, "Mom! Mom!" I turned again to see an older kid splashing his mom to get her attention. She was taking care of a baby in a floaty thing, also only feet behind me. She had been oblivious to the whole thing - how I don't know, since the lifeguard would have had to get past her to get to her son. How scary is that?! I'd looked over some water safety information lately that said, while people expect screaming and splashing when someone drowns, usually it's silent, and they just slip under the water unnoticed. But I didn't think it could happen right behind me without my noticing!
Anyway, the kid was fine, and his mom immediately scolded him for taking off his lifejacket (poor thing, I bet it was all she could do to keep from crying). It just took me a minute to get over the thought of what might have happened, if not for the lifeguard.
Here's my question, though. I grew up on swimteam, we spent countless hours at pools growing up. The only other incident I remember happened when I was little, and someone cracked their head open on a diving board. How often do you think lifeguards really have to jump in and get someone? To those of you who were lifeguards, how many times did you have to?
1 comment:
that's pretty scary Spring - but we had something like this happen just last week with Lias. We were swimming in a pool in Florida with like 12 other kids and 8 adults, all talking and splashing. I was in the middle of a sentence with someone when I went "where's Lias?" and then saw just his hands sticking out of the water. He was in the middle of the group, about 3 ft from my little sister he had been trying to walk to get to. Luckily, I caught him in time and he was just mad, but it easily could have been worse. I think the worst times are when there are tons of kids and people! He'll have a lifejacket on around water now.
Post a Comment