‘LIFE SAVERS’ GET INVOLVED
SURF and pool incidents involving neardrownings or cardiac arrest often fail to have a happy conclusion.
Of course miracles do occur, but in too many instances the outcome is bleak.
There are always lessons to be learned however, if only locals and tourists – indeed, all of us – would heed them.
One important lesson seems self evident: do something, anything, if you see a person in difficulty or in need of resuscitation; don’t stand back and do nothing.
Yet that is exactly what happens in many instances.
The teens who heard the screams of a panicking woman in a Surfers Paradise resort and pulled her husband from the bottom of a pool before attempting to revive him did a remarkable job in a situation that offered little hope.
Their story is extraordinary. As reported, despite the woman’s cries for help, they were the only ones to respond.
We have little doubt those youths were also in a state of near-panic – internally – but they were not going to run from an obligation thrust on to their young shoulders. They went to the rescue, trying to recall whatever CPR training they had in their first aid lessons.
They gave it their best shot. No one could expect or demand more.
Yet other people apparently were shouting at them from balconies. None of them came down to assist though.
The Bulletin has reported similar incidents in recent times. Northcliffe ironwoman Maddy Dunn was working in the club reception one night when she received a phone call from a witness reporting a foreign tourist was drowning in a rip. Patrols had finished for the day, so Dunn raced down to the beach and into the surf fully clothed, bringing the exhausted swimmer to shore.
She told the Bulletin a crowd had been watching the man from shore, but no one had acted to help.
If conditions are rough in the surf, or you do not believe you have the skills to pull someone from the pool or to resuscitate them, don’t just stand there. Phone for help, or find a boardrider or swimmers who could rescue the person, or run to the lifeguards or to resort management – just do something.