Actually on two separate occasions, both when I was very young, and both were for different siblings. I think about these occasionally but not something I would dwell on. One of my brothers nearly drowned in a swimming pool and I dove in to push him up out of the water, he would have probably survived anyway because there were numerous people around but I was the first to react. The other time I was in the basement bailing brine water from the softener salt tank and one of my sisters came down to see what I was doing. She put her hand on the metal sump pump pipe just as the pump turned on (naturally in the 1960’s it was not a grounded circuit). Her bare feet on the wet concrete floor made an excellent ground path, so you can imagine what was happening. After struggling with her for a few seconds I was able to lift her up enough to break the circuit and we both tumbled to the floor. I doubt she would have survived this had I not been there, but she would have been there if I wasn’t.
I was around 5 years old visiting my grandparents in Florida with my parents. I went out to the pool, put a rubber ducky ring float around my waist and jumped into the deep end where my older sister was swimming. When the float hit the water’s surface it stayed on top but I slid through and found myself floundering helplessly in deep water. I remember thinking I would not survive when a man reached into the pool and hauled me out. I never felt so relieved and grateful.
I was at the beach just this past summer, and witnessed a kid about 18-19 years old drowning. It took a few moments to recognize that what I was seeing, and not someone just swimming by face down. When a wave came and rolled him, I jumped in. As I was grabbing him, his friends had realized he was not running back to the blanket behind them, turned and saw the commotion and ran back, taking him from me and dragging him out of the water.
I was glad for the help, he was clearly dead and very heavy.
When I turned around I saw that the lifeguards were not aware of what was going on so I whistled to them, caught their attention and they came running.
Aside from watching the state troopers and lifeguards bringing this kid back to life, which was traumatic enough; there were two extremely disturbing outcomes from this experience:
1. there was an elderly man watching his best friend in the water with concern, so he never saw the kid in front of him until I jumped in. There was another man with a young child on the other side of me who saw, but couldn't leave his kid. As things began to fall into a certain rhythm and chatter started, both of those men thanked me and then told me they didn't think they would have gone in, even if they could; and especially if the person drowning was female. (this is my head exploding). They didn't want to get sued if they touched a spot on her body by accident and they didn't want any kind of litigation against them if something happened to the kid that was actually drowning at the time. I kind of lost my sh*t on them and asked what is worse than death by drowning when someone could have helped but chose - CHOSE!!-not to? Then I said, do I have to worry that, should my daughter go to the beach with her friends and run into trouble, that no one will help her because of their fear of litigation??? What has this world come to? Then I realized they are not unique. Just look at the subway videos from people who could have helped but chose to record instead. That's a different breed right there.
2. Although there are lifeguards every few hundred yards, they don't see everything. No one in 2 chairs, for a total of 8 lifeguards, saw this kid drowning or being pulled from the water until we forced their attention in our direction. Parents need to know this. teens and adults need to know this. It's why you should never swim alone.
It was probably 3 weeks before I was able to sleep at night again. I couldn't get that kid's face out of my mind. To this day, without warning, it will just pop into my head while I'm cooking, or driving, or working. I found out from someone who lives in the area that he survived and is ok, but I still kick myself for not acting sooner. We never think about the processing time during emergencies. It's a real thing.
It’s too bad that those who chose not to help weren’t aware of the Good Samaritan laws that are on the books in many states and have been for years now.
I can’t imagine what you have gone through from your experience but it didn’t sound pleasant. Maybe a bit of PTSD going on?
We were visiting Honolulu, I was wading in the water while hubby was on the beach. Talking to a woman from the Mainland. She took a step back, when off the edge of what we were standing on and was under the water. I could see her start to panic so I reached out, grabbed her arm and gave it a good tug to bring her back on to the shelf. Happened faster than it takes to tell.
And back in high school, I was a lifeguard’s assistant. In the pool with a bunch of preschoolers in the shallow end. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed the top of a head. One little one had gotten just buoyant enough to move out with the water in the pool but not enough to float. So I pushed my way over and pulled him back. That one was way scarier.
I did CPR on someone, but he was gone already. One day, my husband and I were driving home and the entrance to our street was blocked by a big white SUV. We went past the SUV and started to go to the other entrance. As we passed, we saw a man over another man. We stopped, reversed, and asked if the guy needed help. The SUV owner was doing CPR on the guy on the ground and said yes, he needed help. His wife had called 911 already. I jumped out, since I was an acupuncturist and had more medical experience than my husband. The man on the ground was unresponsive, cool to the touch and grey. I took his pulse, and there wasn't one. Soon, the SUV guy got tired and I took over the CPR. The ambulance took over 15 min to arrive. They used the defibrillator on him multiple times with no result. It turns out he was the brother of one of our neighbors. She cried so hard when she saw him lying in the street. I helped her get her things together for the hospital where they were taking him. I wished I could have done more. I wished I could have helped to revive him. But wishing never helped anyone. In the weeks and months after, my husband and I stocked our home with a portable EKG machine, a stop choking kit, and a fire blanket.
I was a lifeguard when I was 15-17 years old living in Central Florida. One of the places I guarded was a lake. One time there was a young kid -- about 10-11 years old I'd guess -- that was out on a sunfish and it tipped over, dumping him out. Turned out, he couldn't swim. No one else was out with him. So, I ran and swam out with my rescue equipment (having thoroughly learned the lesson of not putting my own body at risk first) and got him into shore. I acted quickly enough that he didn't go under long enough to need reviving with CPR.
Writing this, it just doesn't seem as big a deal as it was and still is to me. The feeling I had at the time was that I needed to do this -- it was my responsibility, my duty, my job. And it MUST be done successfully. And so I did it. There wasn't any fanfare after, no recognition, just me having done what needed doing and the kid living on. And I felt good about having stepped up without delay or ambivalence. I'd had a lot of training and it all kicked in. Was an amazing experience when I thought about it later.
Thanks for the SNL clip Bill. I got all my Red Cross lifesaving badges decades ago and thankfully never had to use all that certification. It is important to consider one’s own strengths or limitations as it’s perhaps better to get help than to put two lives at risk. This is appropriate to think about at a lake or ocean since swimming to rescue a victim in those elements is far more hazardous that few people are ill equipped to handle. Trying to rescue the rescuer and the victim in less than ideal circumstances makes for a tough day for others.
22 years old, driving my grey Civic to my first job and a small child is running in the left lane of a highway overpass in East Hartford CT.
Terrified, I hit my flashers, slowly pull beside him and tell him I’d drive him home, to his mom. I notice his recent buzz cut and a bit of ear wax in his left ear. He’s crying. Uh oh- maybe mom wasn’t the right thing to say.
Panicked, I can’t remember where the police station is located. It’s 1996- no cellphone. I flag down a maintenance worker and he radios police.
He’d run away from his new foster home. Ooof.
I send him prayers every day. I imagine him happy with a little boy and a dog.
I'd like to say, "Maybe"! As a high school teacher I consoled many of my students dealing with much turmoil, some who were suicidal. I'd like to think that I did some good for those kids, they all survived, maybe 1 or 2 would not have. I'm not sure.
Great article and thank you for the SNL remembrance. It was awesome!
Hello. Test.
I keep getting a substack error when I try to vote or answer a question. I am using MacOS Sequoia and both Mac Mail.app and Spark.app.
Thanks Bill! I’m now back and can see and write comments. You so ROCK!!!!!
Actually on two separate occasions, both when I was very young, and both were for different siblings. I think about these occasionally but not something I would dwell on. One of my brothers nearly drowned in a swimming pool and I dove in to push him up out of the water, he would have probably survived anyway because there were numerous people around but I was the first to react. The other time I was in the basement bailing brine water from the softener salt tank and one of my sisters came down to see what I was doing. She put her hand on the metal sump pump pipe just as the pump turned on (naturally in the 1960’s it was not a grounded circuit). Her bare feet on the wet concrete floor made an excellent ground path, so you can imagine what was happening. After struggling with her for a few seconds I was able to lift her up enough to break the circuit and we both tumbled to the floor. I doubt she would have survived this had I not been there, but she would have been there if I wasn’t.
I was around 5 years old visiting my grandparents in Florida with my parents. I went out to the pool, put a rubber ducky ring float around my waist and jumped into the deep end where my older sister was swimming. When the float hit the water’s surface it stayed on top but I slid through and found myself floundering helplessly in deep water. I remember thinking I would not survive when a man reached into the pool and hauled me out. I never felt so relieved and grateful.
I was at the beach just this past summer, and witnessed a kid about 18-19 years old drowning. It took a few moments to recognize that what I was seeing, and not someone just swimming by face down. When a wave came and rolled him, I jumped in. As I was grabbing him, his friends had realized he was not running back to the blanket behind them, turned and saw the commotion and ran back, taking him from me and dragging him out of the water.
I was glad for the help, he was clearly dead and very heavy.
When I turned around I saw that the lifeguards were not aware of what was going on so I whistled to them, caught their attention and they came running.
Aside from watching the state troopers and lifeguards bringing this kid back to life, which was traumatic enough; there were two extremely disturbing outcomes from this experience:
1. there was an elderly man watching his best friend in the water with concern, so he never saw the kid in front of him until I jumped in. There was another man with a young child on the other side of me who saw, but couldn't leave his kid. As things began to fall into a certain rhythm and chatter started, both of those men thanked me and then told me they didn't think they would have gone in, even if they could; and especially if the person drowning was female. (this is my head exploding). They didn't want to get sued if they touched a spot on her body by accident and they didn't want any kind of litigation against them if something happened to the kid that was actually drowning at the time. I kind of lost my sh*t on them and asked what is worse than death by drowning when someone could have helped but chose - CHOSE!!-not to? Then I said, do I have to worry that, should my daughter go to the beach with her friends and run into trouble, that no one will help her because of their fear of litigation??? What has this world come to? Then I realized they are not unique. Just look at the subway videos from people who could have helped but chose to record instead. That's a different breed right there.
2. Although there are lifeguards every few hundred yards, they don't see everything. No one in 2 chairs, for a total of 8 lifeguards, saw this kid drowning or being pulled from the water until we forced their attention in our direction. Parents need to know this. teens and adults need to know this. It's why you should never swim alone.
It was probably 3 weeks before I was able to sleep at night again. I couldn't get that kid's face out of my mind. To this day, without warning, it will just pop into my head while I'm cooking, or driving, or working. I found out from someone who lives in the area that he survived and is ok, but I still kick myself for not acting sooner. We never think about the processing time during emergencies. It's a real thing.
It’s too bad that those who chose not to help weren’t aware of the Good Samaritan laws that are on the books in many states and have been for years now.
I can’t imagine what you have gone through from your experience but it didn’t sound pleasant. Maybe a bit of PTSD going on?
We were visiting Honolulu, I was wading in the water while hubby was on the beach. Talking to a woman from the Mainland. She took a step back, when off the edge of what we were standing on and was under the water. I could see her start to panic so I reached out, grabbed her arm and gave it a good tug to bring her back on to the shelf. Happened faster than it takes to tell.
And back in high school, I was a lifeguard’s assistant. In the pool with a bunch of preschoolers in the shallow end. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed the top of a head. One little one had gotten just buoyant enough to move out with the water in the pool but not enough to float. So I pushed my way over and pulled him back. That one was way scarier.
I did CPR on someone, but he was gone already. One day, my husband and I were driving home and the entrance to our street was blocked by a big white SUV. We went past the SUV and started to go to the other entrance. As we passed, we saw a man over another man. We stopped, reversed, and asked if the guy needed help. The SUV owner was doing CPR on the guy on the ground and said yes, he needed help. His wife had called 911 already. I jumped out, since I was an acupuncturist and had more medical experience than my husband. The man on the ground was unresponsive, cool to the touch and grey. I took his pulse, and there wasn't one. Soon, the SUV guy got tired and I took over the CPR. The ambulance took over 15 min to arrive. They used the defibrillator on him multiple times with no result. It turns out he was the brother of one of our neighbors. She cried so hard when she saw him lying in the street. I helped her get her things together for the hospital where they were taking him. I wished I could have done more. I wished I could have helped to revive him. But wishing never helped anyone. In the weeks and months after, my husband and I stocked our home with a portable EKG machine, a stop choking kit, and a fire blanket.
I was a lifeguard when I was 15-17 years old living in Central Florida. One of the places I guarded was a lake. One time there was a young kid -- about 10-11 years old I'd guess -- that was out on a sunfish and it tipped over, dumping him out. Turned out, he couldn't swim. No one else was out with him. So, I ran and swam out with my rescue equipment (having thoroughly learned the lesson of not putting my own body at risk first) and got him into shore. I acted quickly enough that he didn't go under long enough to need reviving with CPR.
Writing this, it just doesn't seem as big a deal as it was and still is to me. The feeling I had at the time was that I needed to do this -- it was my responsibility, my duty, my job. And it MUST be done successfully. And so I did it. There wasn't any fanfare after, no recognition, just me having done what needed doing and the kid living on. And I felt good about having stepped up without delay or ambivalence. I'd had a lot of training and it all kicked in. Was an amazing experience when I thought about it later.
Thanks for the SNL clip Bill. I got all my Red Cross lifesaving badges decades ago and thankfully never had to use all that certification. It is important to consider one’s own strengths or limitations as it’s perhaps better to get help than to put two lives at risk. This is appropriate to think about at a lake or ocean since swimming to rescue a victim in those elements is far more hazardous that few people are ill equipped to handle. Trying to rescue the rescuer and the victim in less than ideal circumstances makes for a tough day for others.
22 years old, driving my grey Civic to my first job and a small child is running in the left lane of a highway overpass in East Hartford CT.
Terrified, I hit my flashers, slowly pull beside him and tell him I’d drive him home, to his mom. I notice his recent buzz cut and a bit of ear wax in his left ear. He’s crying. Uh oh- maybe mom wasn’t the right thing to say.
Panicked, I can’t remember where the police station is located. It’s 1996- no cellphone. I flag down a maintenance worker and he radios police.
He’d run away from his new foster home. Ooof.
I send him prayers every day. I imagine him happy with a little boy and a dog.
I'd like to say, "Maybe"! As a high school teacher I consoled many of my students dealing with much turmoil, some who were suicidal. I'd like to think that I did some good for those kids, they all survived, maybe 1 or 2 would not have. I'm not sure.