Pool accidents

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 Either way, I wouldn't let him intentionally weight himself down on my watch. 1) It puts my ass on the line and B) I'm not getting hazard pay for it!

I did a 100 yard underwater swim once, really had a bad head ache after that. Just stupid to do it or even try it. In college I could swim over 75 yd underwater(75,a push off and maybe a stroke.) When I went over to someone's house who had a back yard pool I'd ask "what is the OLD record for lengths underwater."I now realize how stupid that is.You only have to miscalculate once to be in big trouble,and if you've hyperventilated first you may not know you have to breathe until too late.

I was just in one last night, but no one was hurt. I waas done our set, and one of the other guys in my lane had one more to do. I thought I was out of his way, but he came in to turn amd POW!, hit me right in the chest. It shocked me more than anything.

Just the usual stuff: I nailed my chin on the bottom as a kid...stitches. Guy nailed a girl in the face with hand paddles while doing fly. Her goggles split her open above the eye...stitches. Girl split her heels on wall misjudging a flip turn (seen that about 3 times). I've grabbed a few kids in my time that crept out a little to far or mommy wasn't watching...no big deal. Had to save a guy in the ocean once when he got tired trying to find his nephew who was missing (later found, but could not resesitate unfortunately). Luckily I haven't seen anything too major other than the beach incident.

I was just in one last night, but no one was hurt. I waas done our set, and one of the other guys in my lane had one more to do. I thought I was out of his way, but he came in to turn amd POW!, hit me right in the chest. It shocked me more than anything. That's hurts me just reading about that; especially if he has an aggressive turn!

I;ve been involved in a couple. One I had the lane to myself, and was swimming merrily along on my back when WHACK I hit some poor sod who had jumped into my lane and started swimming. He needed 3 stitches in his lip and I felt like a huge jerk. The other accident - I WHACKED my left heel on the deck doing a flip turn. Blood splattered everywhere - they had to close the pool due to the blood and fear of infection. THAT made me feel like an even bigger jerk! I hobbled for over a week, and even now, three years later, I have a huge callous/scar tissue build up there. Very ugly in sandals.

Ha, yeah. It stung for a minute, but we were almost done with practice, so the adrenaline was flowing.

I've been in and around the pool enough to have been present for some scary moments. * At one championship meet I was running, we sent a young teen female to the hospital in an ambulance with what turned out to be hyponatremia. (low salt) It was distance event day, and she was doing everything she could to stay hydrated... but was only drinking water, and got no sodium intake. She was OK. * At a meet I attended as a team manager type, we had a diver who hit his head on the board during prelims in the morning on the 5th round (out of 6 rounds) dive. This was at West Point. He was rushed off to the hospital for many stitches. Amazingly, even with a bad 5th round dive, and a scratched 6th round dive, he qualified for finals, and came back to dive in finals. He had a several layers of bathing cap on to keep the wound area dry. * At another meet I was running, a swimmer collapsed in the warmdown area while standing around talking with his teammates watching the races across the pool. An alert guard jumped in and had pulled him up before his friends even realized what had happened. We believe he also had a bit of a "drowning reflex". He was taken to a top-notch Boston hospital for a check-up, and doctors signed off on everything, saying it was just a fainting spell or something. Quite tragically, he died two weeks later while playing basketball with his friends. Turned out to be a congenital heart defect I believe. Be careful out there! -Rick

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. i was cut on the cheek by someone wearing huge paddles. i think he sharpened them on the edge of the deck first. then another time, i got whacked(i wear socket rockets) in the head in a pool in france. by someone who had the widest recovery known to man. lastly , kicked in the bread basket by a fitness swimmer(obviously ex ballerina) swimming frog leg style breasstroke.

* At a meet I attended as a team manager type, we had a diver who hit his head on the board during prelims in the morning on the 5th round (out of 6 rounds) dive. This was at West Point. He was rushed off to the hospital for many stitches. Amazingly, even with a bad 5th round dive, and a scratched 6th round dive, he qualified for finals, and came back to dive in finals. He had a several layers of bathing cap on to keep the wound area dry. * At another meet I was running, a swimmer collapsed in the warmdown area while standing around talking with his teammates watching the races across the pool. An alert guard jumped in and had pulled him up before his friends even realized what had happened. We believe he also had a bit of a "drowning reflex". He was taken to a top-notch Boston hospital for a check-up, and doctors signed off on everything, saying it was just a fainting spell or something. Quite tragically, he died two weeks later while playing basketball with his friends. Turned out to be a congenital heart defect I believe. Be careful out there! -Rick That diver is a TOUGH kid! As for the swimmer, that is such a sad story... was this a recent event?