Have any of you seen or experienced serious pool accidents, such as saves, drowning, collisions with serious consequences...? I haven't seen myself, but I've heard of some scaring collisions due to too crowded lanes. In one case, a swimmer's toe was broken; in another, a swimmer's eyeball was taken out :eek: while backstroking and another swimmer freestyling and didn't see the first swimmer (who didn't wear goggles). In another case, a swimmer drowned (cause unknown) and her body stayed at the bottom of the pool for a long time before being discovered--someone swam above and past her three times and saw her still there. It's said the lifeguards were changing shifts during that time and didn't pay attention.
Former Member
When I was a lifeguard I never saved anyone when I was on duty. Another lifequard at the pool said he had 123 saves (I think he was not much of a lifeguard).
When I was in Mexico last year there was a drowning at the pool. I came by after he was revived they put him in a stretcher and took the blankets off him, then into the back of a pickup truck. He died on the way to the hospital.
I don't think he died from drowning but the after care.
We have a story at our yard pool were a visiting swimmer, who was used to a meter pool, did a flip turn on her first lap and split her entire heel on the gutter.
Blood every where and she was not seen at the pool again.
When I was the pool manager in the city of Toronto the most prolific injury was the splt chin from people slipping and falling in the shower room. The life guards used lots of butterfly band aids.
I read about a US Navy Seal who drowned in full view of lifeguards in Hawaii . What happened was he approached the guards and I guess showed his ID and told them he was a S.E.A.L and was training to hold his breath. He told them not to worry about him and they did not. He went down on the bottom in the shallow end and put a weight on him to hold him down held his breath till he passed out and stayed down as the guards thought he knew what he was doing even as people told them..theres a guy down on the bottom..Yea.. hes a Navy S.E.A.L training they said and did not realize he had never surfaced. Sad.
This is crazy. As a lifeguard I'm not going to let anyone, even Chuck Norris, attempt a stunt like that. I'd have asked him to not do it or have him leave he insists.
If this guy truly was a SEAL I think they have their own facilites for this kind of stuff, and he would at least understand protocol, and chain of command. I find it a bit unbelievable.
I've seen quite few and made rescues on quite a few, but the one that sticks out in my mind the most is:
As I was guarding the opening shift, the Master's Swim Team came in for their usual practice. No coach was on deck yet and 3 out of the 10 swimmers decided to get a head start on the warm-ups. The lead swimmer in the lane hit the turn, the second hit the turn, and then the third went for the turn...the back of his heels hit the top of the gutter and he snapped both of his achiles tendons (spelling might be off there). Needless to say he was in some serious trouble; jumped in, made the save, and the guy had surgery approx. 3 days later to repair his tendon(s). Pretty freaky stuff, though, to see feet just dangle with no movement!
US Navy Seals have to pass a 50 yard underwater swim before graduating so thats why the breathing hold practise . There was also a recent drowning along the same lines this year with a young man training to enter the unit in a civilian pool.
Google US Navy SEAL drowns holding breath for results
The Hawaii incident is here.
www.lifesaving.com/.../case09.htm
My cousin was a Navy SEAL, a classmate of mine was a Navy SEAL, and my high school wrestling coach was a Navy SEAL--none of them would ever do something as stupid as that. If you absolutely have to do something like that (and I don't know why you would, as they have facilities where they train), why do you need to tell the lifeguard? I do underwater exercises at my gym all the time, and I never tell the lifeguards. I figure if I tell them I'm going to be underwater for a minute or so at a time, they'll just assume I'm okay under there. I'd rather them think something was wrong when it isn't than think everything is okay when I'm unconscious and drowning.
iv slipped off the diving board when i bounced to do an inward and smaked my arms.
Doing under water swimming is very dangerous. A kid in my neighborhood nearly died trying to do a 50. He got to 48 and sucked in water.
We do underwater repeats all the time at practice, so I'm used to it. I wouldn't do more than a 50 without taking a breath unless I was with teammates and we were doing an exercise. Last week our coach had us dive in and swim back and forth as far as we could underwater. A couple of guys went almost 75 yards.
As a lifeguard, had two saves in less than 5 minutes. It was also my first day on the job. Kids who couldn't swim were going down the slide during peak hours. I loved the first kids' excuse... "I was just taking my time!" No other "big saves" or injuries while I was guarding... we never had problems at our pool.
Broke half of my front tooth off on the bottom of a pool. The dental work will continue the rest of my life (new crowns once in a while and will probably have to get an implant some day).
Had someone smack me in the eye during a pull set... paddles vs. sweedes are not a good combination. The eye was black and blue and swollen the rest of the week. She wasn't paying attention and was swimming down the center of the lane - and WHAM! The goggle turned inward and mooshed into my eyeball. I'm a tough girl, but that really hurt.
