Posted on 12/07/2011 4:37:02 PM PST by thepainster
Wow. Like reading a Reader’s Digest story. Very well written. Happy things worked out for you. That so many people dived into the freezing water to help is a wonderful testament to the nobility of the species. God bless.
I am glad you survived.
Some rules I remember from lifesaving.
1) The one that saved me “Don’t Panic”
2) The one Frank used “Throw, Row, Go”
God bless and don’t forget the damn life vest/PFD
Basil you are so right!
Good to hear from you again. Not sure if you remember me, but we met once in Austin.
Seriously, well told and take care.
Once, I was camping with some buddies by a watershed lake (more of a pond) in WV in early April.
A storm came up and we had to abandon camp due to rising water. We were camping where the feeder creek entered the lake, The next day, our camp was underwater. The jon boat that I had beached on the side of the creek was gone.
My party walked around the perimeter of the lake, through the woods. My friend’s little brother, who was about 14 at the time, went ahead of us. When he got to the wide part of the lake, he saw the boat on the opposite side, about 100 yards away.
Without waiting for us, he jumped in and swam after the boat. Even in early spring, the water was cold enough to pose a real risk of hypothermia. He didn’t bother to take his boots off.
He made it to the boat and paddled it back to us. Only later did we learn how close to death he came that day. He’d gone under a few times and struggled to the surface. Despite that, he never called out to us.
When he told his dad about it afterward, he cried.
If he’d drowned, I’d have never forgiven myself. Today he’s got a lovely family with four kids.
I guess the moral is: water is a jealous b***h and not one to be trifled with. Like you, I tell everyone in hopes that they don’t end up making the same mistake.
Merry Christmas and God bless all those heroes!!
Norwood here....
Glad you survived.
:)
I’m glad you made it.
When I was nine, I jumped out of a canoe wearing a life jacket into a Quebec lake in early fall, because I was mad at my brother. Within a minute, I couldn’t move and he had to tow me in. The humiliation.
When I was eleven, I jumped into a pond in Sweden in early June to rescue a toy my little brother had dropped. It was about 15 feet out from the dock, and by the time I reached the toy I couldn’t take a breath, and on the way back I was losing the use of my arms and legs. Just made it.
The mammmalian diving reflex is stronger in children but those two episodes have given me a fearful respect of cold water.
That is an amazing story! This is going to be a very memorable Christmas season for you and yours I bet. Your family gets the best gift, YOU.
The sarcastic part of my brain was whispering “What kind of Texan moves to Massataxes?” and “I hope Josh goes to private school”
I think I was too stupid to panic intially and too cold eventually.
Throw, Row, Go....Have not heard that for a while.
Eileen went and bought two throwable life preservers the next day. One for her side of the lake, one for mine.
Don’t listen to him. Always wear your life jacket when in a boat.
Even the best of swimmers can be knocked unconscious when falling out of a boat. Even in warm water you can become exhausted and drown if in the water long enough.
A life jacket does you no good if you do not wear it.
Glad you’re OK. I’d second the suggestions upthread about an extra paddle and suggest a hole through the handle and light line securing it to the canoe.
There was shrinkage!!!
(Glad you made it. A story is so much better than an obituary.)
When you are hypothermic it is very difficult to speak, much less yell out. I had no idea until I experienced it myself. When Frank first ask me if I was OK, I tried to yell but nothing came out. When I finally was able to speak, it was not loud at all.
Almost dying for a toy must have been one of the dumbest things ever, right? At least I hope you didn’t keep trying to top it.
I remember my dad went fishing once. I had a toy battleship, and some string.... it was like flying a kite on the water until the string broke. I was very upset.
Good thing my dad was too smart to jump in after it, because it was starting to rain and the wind was pushing it quickly. He went into a floating boat dock kind of thing and caught it passing underneath.
It wasn’t freezing, the water was probably cold though. But with a storm coming in and the water was really choppy for a big Texas lake, my dad was in his 50’s I think. (I was born 40 years behind him)
I just consider myself working behind enemy lines.
"I hope Josh goes to private school"
Better than that, he is home schooled!
People on the verge of drowning usually cannot call out, because they can’t get their mouths above water, or the second air leaves their lungs to make a sound, they sink. Or reflex keeps their mouths closed.
They don’t thrash and splash, because they can’t get their arms out of the water.
They are vertical in the water, with their heads tipped back, and there is panic in their eyes, and they are silent and almost still - those are the signs that drowning is imminent.
I once saw my friend’s three y.o. daughter in this state, not realizing what it meant, I thought she was treading water. She was supposed to be a good little swimmer. Thank God my friend recognized what was going on before she came to harm. But the guilt stays with me even though she wasn’t hurt - I could have saved her from some time of terror.
Later I read a lifeguard’s account of what a drowning person looks like - an ocean lifeguard with decades of experience and hundreds of rescues - not some teenager at your local pool - and his account was exactly what I had seen with that little girl.
Well, you sound like a good upstanding citizen. You even moved up there so you could pay more than your “fair share”.
lol.
Darn, my sarcastic side keeps me from being serious sometimes.
We have ponds in Texas too..... Lake Lewisville, Grapevine Lake, Lake Texhoma, Mountain Creek Lake etc
Canoes are stupid. I never saw the point to them in open water.
Good luck getting a fisherman who is just paddling or slowly trolling along a lake shoreline to wear a life jacket. When the water is warm, they’re not going to do it. Even when it’s cold they probably won’t, although they should.
It’s a no brainer when you’re paddling in a river with current or running a powerboat in a lake or salt water.
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