Posted on 08/09/2012 5:32:59 PM PDT by West Texas Chuck
A four year old little Man jumps into a pool to save a struggling little girl, then drowned and was took off life support today.
(Excerpt) Read more at star-telegram.com ...
Where were the parents? Where were the lifeguards? Why was a three-year-old girl far enough away from her parents that she could even get in trouble? How did it happen that this boy was in the water without adult help long enough to get in trouble himself?
Both of my kids have been lifeguards and pool-complex managers (son now, daughter during college). I drove them to their training and listened to the lectures. They have both had to save tiny children whose parents did not obey the rule to ALWAYS stay within arm’s length of a small child who is in the water. They both cracked the whip at the pools they managed, insisting parents either stay in arm’s reach and supervise their kids, or go home, because lives are at stake. I obeyed that rule when my kids were tiny. It’s not that hard.
This heroic, noble-spirited little boy should not have had to die. It’s so infuriating that a tragedy like this ever took place. May God lift him up to everlasting joy.
My feelings as well. Article says registered Nurse and a Psych Technician were witth the children; and began CPR after the fact. This is just so heart-breaking. A precious child died because parents weren’t watching their children.
I agree with your assessment, ott.
No four year old should be in a position where he has to decide to rescue a three year old. Babies saving babies?
That said, I feel for the parents who will have to endure not only the pain of the loss of their child but probably guilt as well.
In my area, local pools do not permit such small children to be in the water without an adult even if the children are wearing a flotation device. A child has to demonstrate that he or she can swim the entire length of the pool smoothly, unassisted, before he is allowed to be in the pool without an adult RIGHT next to him. And there are regulations about how many lifeguards are to be up in the chairs for how many pool patrons. No small child is allowed in the deep end.
Kids slip under the water and drown silently, without splashing or fighting. You have to watch them like a hawk.
I hate to interrupt all the praise and blessings for this sweet boy, but where the hell were the damn PARENTS? How could they put a 3 year old in a pool with any possibility of drowning? How was he in a position to be the only one to save her? WTF?
RIP kid
Agreed.
YEP!
I have to admit to having the same thought. Ottbmare posted more information right before your post. What I’ve noticed at pools: When young children learn to swim well enough, many parents seem to be lured into a false sense of security. Very sad.
There is no way a three-year-old could ever learn to swim well enough to be left unsupervised. No, not even in shallow water. And no, not even wearing a flotation device. Kids can just slip right out of life jackets and water wings.
Good job, Little Man. You were more responsible, sadly than the “adults” who should have been in the pool with you.
Right on. I just found out that one of my mountain bike buds locally had a kid in the same daycare. He had to have the death talk with his 5yo about losing a friend, guess all the kids made cards for Xander.
No explanation on where his keepers were except that another guy on the local MTB board knows the mom, Misty, and that whole family is all tore up. I’m sure.
I’ve saved my own life a few times, but never that of another I can really pin down. Still, all I can say is I really respect that little guy, steel balls that it would take a wheel barrow to haul around I reckon.
Wow, just wow.
Remember: Real drowning doesn’t look like movie drowning.
Read this. It could save your life or the life of another. Watch the video at the link.
http://mariovittone.com/2010/05/154/
Drowning Doesn’t Look Like Drowning
Post image for Drowning Doesn’t Look Like Drowning
by Mario on May 3, 2010
in Boating Safety,Water Safety
The new captain jumped from the deck, fully dressed, and sprinted through the water. A former lifeguard, he kept his eyes on his victim as he headed straight for the couple 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.
The Instinctive Drowning Response – so named by Francesco A. Pia, Ph.D., is what people do to avoid actual or perceived suffocation in the water. And it does not look like most people expect. There is very little splashing, no waving, and no yelling or calls for help of any kind. To get an idea of just how quiet and undramatic from the surface drowning can be, consider this: It is the number two cause of accidental death in children, age 15 and under (just behind vehicle accidents) – of the approximately 750 children who will drown next year, about 375 of them will do so within 25 yards of a parent or other adult. In ten percent of those drownings, the adult will actually watch them do it, having no idea it is happening (source: CDC). Drowning does not look like drowning – Dr. Pia, in an article in the Coast Guard’s On Scene Magazine, described the instinctive drowning response like this:
1. Except in rare circumstances, drowning people are physiologically unable to call out for help. The respiratory system was designed for breathing. Speech is the secondary or overlaid function. Breathing must be fulfilled, before speech occurs.
2. Drowning people’s mouths alternately sink below and reappear above the surface of the water. The mouths of drowning people are not above the surface of the water long enough for them to exhale, inhale, and call out for help. When the drowning people’s mouths are above the surface, they exhale and inhale quickly as their mouths start to sink below the surface of the water.
3. Drowning people cannot wave for help. Nature instinctively forces them to extend their arms laterally and press down on the water’s surface. Pressing down on the surface of the water, permits drowning people to leverage their bodies so they can lift their mouths out of the water to breathe.
4. Throughout the Instinctive Drowning Response, drowning people cannot voluntarily control their arm movements. Physiologically, drowning people who are struggling on the surface of the water cannot stop drowning and perform voluntary movements such as waving for help, moving toward a rescuer, or reaching out for a piece of rescue equipment.
5. From beginning to end of the Instinctive Drowning Response people’s bodies remain upright in the water, with no evidence of a supporting kick. Unless rescued by a trained lifeguard, these drowning people can only struggle on the surface of the water from 20 to 60 seconds before submersion occurs.
(Source: On Scene Magazine: Fall 2006 (page 14))
This doesn’t mean that a person that is yelling for help and thrashing isn’t in real trouble – they are experiencing aquatic distress. Not always present before the instinctive drowning response, aquatic distress doesn’t last long – but unlike true drowning, these victims can still assist in their own rescue. They can grab lifelines, throw rings, etc.
Look for these other signs of drowning when persons are in the water:
* Head low in the water, mouth at water level
* Head tilted back with mouth open
* Eyes glassy and empty, unable to focus
* Eyes closed
* Hair over forehead or eyes
* Not using legs – Vertical
* Hyperventilating or gasping
* Trying to swim in a particular direction but not making headway
* Trying to roll over on the back
* Appear to be climbing an invisible ladder.
So if a crew member falls overboard and everything looks OK – don’t be too sure. Sometimes the most common indication that someone is drowning is that they don’t look like they’re drowning. They may just look like they are treading water and looking up at the deck. One way to be sure? Ask them, “Are you alright?” If they can answer at all – they probably are. If they return a blank stare, you may have less than 30 seconds to get to them. And parents – children playing in the water make noise. When they get quiet, you get to them and find out why.
(See a video of the Instinctive Drowning Response)
http://mariovittone.com/2011/07/video-of-instinctive-drowning-response/
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