I have been trained as a life guard for 10 years and am now a life guard instructor. In my 10 years I have never seen a drowning or witnessed a save. Yesterday during a swim camp practice at the Texas A&M pool, a student was doing some hypoxic (breath control) training at the bottom of the diving well using a brick to walk the length (25m) of the pool. I have seen many people do this and it is also practiced in military training exercises especially for navy seals. It is believed that the guy who was nearly drowned was preparing himself for navy seal training.
I walked in the pool area with my campers and heard the first whistle. The life guard did not react immediately so I did not think anything serious was going on until I saw her pull up an unconscious guy. The poor girl that was performing the save was probably 4'9 and the guy looked to be 6'5. She was struggling a lot and another guard had to jump in to help. I was seriously about to jump in myself because it was so frustrating to see her struggle. They successfully pulled the guy out and I got to watch (from about 10 feet away) the breaking of the sternum and full on CRP.
I was very intrigued and curious because I had never seen it before other than in the classes I teach with manikins. A couple other counselors came over to watch with me and we analyzed every move and how quickly they were able to activate the AED. Everything played out like clockwork, everything seemed just like we imagined it would be...until the AED started shocking. By this time all the campers were ushered out and no one was in the immediate area and the counselors and myself were made to go into a hallway across the pool, but we could still see. Every time there was a shock the guys legs fully extended in the air. After about 10 shocks, he started screaming. Yes, he was still unconscious, but I had never imagined that reaction. He was giving blood curdling screams...literally coughing up blood. That was the most disturbing part.
I was not at all disgusted or freaked out because I felt it very important that I watch the whole scene so that if I am ever in that situation I would know what to expect. EMS arrived within 5 minutes, but they worked on him for about 15 and were still unable to get a pulse as they finally wheeled him out and transported him to the hospital. I was told they were able to stabilize him, but he has only just become responsive today. There is a big chance that he has permanent brain damage because he went without oxygen for too long. Really sad. So today me and a couple others who are life guard instructors really got into the whole thing and critiqued the whole save. I think the only thing that was not stellar was the primary rescuer. There really needs to be a more strict swimming requirement to be certified after what I saw. Seriously!
Here is the link to the story online: http://www.kbtx.com/home/headlines/124665854.html
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