Comments on: West U Child Nearly Drowns at Colonial Pool

By: anonymous

anonymous — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 04:04:08 +0000

I am sure the lifeguards are trained but they are not doctors and nurses and this situation was beyond the training of a lifeguard. The lifeguards were too young and inexperienced to realize and react to this. The fault lies with Tim OConnor. He is too busy with might is right to think of the welfare of the children and familites of the neighborhood. When has it ever been best to not allow a doctor or nurse to help in an emergency situation. Why would our neighborhood pool have such a policy when there are so many doctors and nurses available. Instead of having the doctors and nurses volunteer to help in emergencies let the patron decide if they want a lifeguard to help them in a medical emergency or a medical professional who may be at the pool. You can put on my card get me a medical professional

By: garagesarenotattics

garagesarenotattics — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 03:18:21 +0000

If your child is disabled, he or she likely needs and DESERVES extra care and attention.
If your child has a known seizure disorder and has had a near drowning before AT THE SAME FACILITY no less, leaving him unsupervised in the water is unconscionable, and quite frankly may be criminal. A child with a seizure disorder needs CONSTANT arm’s length supervision in the water by someone who knows and understands his condition. Lifeguards at a public pool simply cannot be expected to serve that roll. If those parents can’t or won’t accompany and care for him at the pool, they could get an aide, a certified sitter, or pay an off-duty lifeguard etc etc to give him the one-to-one attention he needs & deserves while in or near water. Nobody is saying the kid can’t be there. He just needs proper seizure precautions.
Sadly, it is possible that next time HE WILL DIE due to the negligence of his parents – no lifeguards, WUPD or poorly behaved bystanders will be to blame.
Who are these parents? If you know them and care at all about this child PLEASE call CPS. Not because they have a disabled child. because they have a disabled child whom they are NEGLECTING and putting in mortal danger.

By: garagesarenotattics

garagesarenotattics — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 02:43:19 +0000

The child’s parents are the root of this problem. If your child has a known seizure disorder and has had a near drowning before, leaving him unsupervised in the water is unconscionable.
CPS MUST be called.
Next time HE WILL DIE due to the negligence of his parents – no lifeguards, WUPD or bystanders will be to blame.
Who are these people? I will personally call CPS – give me their name.

By: J

Fri, 27 Apr 2012 01:15:40 +0000

No one is blaming ur child. We r asking why couldn’t a dr help?

By: Parent of Lifeguard

Parent of Lifeguard — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 22:23:51 +0000

As a parent of one of the lifeguards who was on duty the day of the accident I am confident that my child has the necessary skills to properly respond and adequately treat all different types of emergency victims. In addition to the standard CPR certification the lifeguards are also CPR-AED certified as well as Lifeguard/First Aid training. As such, the CPR-AED training includes resuscitation techniques for all victims including siezure victims. Additionally, they are trained in the use of automatic external defibrillators if needed; however, they were NOT necessary in this situation because the child was never pulseless. As such, resucue breathing was the correct method of treatment for this child. As many people have incorrectly stated, the lifeguards did NOT need to perform compressions because the child was never without a pulse. Unfortunately, the police officer who arrived at the scene began compressions WITHOUT realizing that the child did have a pulse and did not confirm with the lifeguards on duty that the child was breathing before compressions were started. Perhaps blame should be placed elsewhere and not on the lifeguards who did exactly as they were taught. Unfortunately, my child continues to suffer emotional distress because so many parents continue to place blame where it shouldn’t be. Instead of the constant negativity towards the hard-working young men and women who give of their time to help others by ensuring a safe environment to swim in, some of you parents should be thanking them instead. And to the parents who talked so disrepectfully to the lifeguards you should think about how your own child would feel if they were treated the same way.

By: JL

JL — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 21:36:38 +0000

I think it was very brave and upstanding of you to apologize. I am not a nurse but was there and agree with your account of the details. I can see how you got emotional. It was terrifying to watch. I think people think we are upset or judging the young lifeguards by saying it’s OK for them to ask for help. That’s not the case at all. They did a great job getting the boy out of the pool and doing the initial assessment BUT when it was clear the boy was deteriating, I wish they would have let a doctor/nurse intervene. I feel positive that if the parents were there , they would have begged for a doctor or nurse to intervene to help save their child. I believe one can say that AND also say the lifeguards did a great job.

By: neighbor

neighbor — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 20:35:02 +0000

If the parents were there I guarantee they would have asked for help from the doctors. I would be screaming for help from the doctors and nurses if it were my child. That was the eeriest part of the whole incident. No one was screaming for that child. It was clear the parents weren’t there.

By: J. Flotsam

J. Flotsam — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 19:03:20 +0000

I wonder what will be discussed after an adult swimmer has a
not so near incident at the WU Recreation Center pool when it’s:
“Swim At Your Own Risk, No Guard On Duty” hour$?

By: JCL

JCL — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 17:08:09 +0000

My daughter was there and this is also the same account I got from her and the adults she was with. They thought he had died and were extreemly upset that nothing was being done until the police woman started doing CPR. If it would have been my child and a doctor or nurse came to help, I would have demanded that they do whatever they could to try. The longer the brain is without oxygen, the more damage it does. Time is critical. Someone should have started CPR IMMEDIATELY!

By: nottinghamed

nottinghamed — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 16:21:34 +0000

Interesting discussion on similar topic of whether lifeguards should defer to off duty people who claim to be medical professionals:
http://aiconnect.ning.com/forum/topics/how-should-we-train-lifeguards

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 04:58:25 +0000

You have inexperienced teenagers with a very basic lifeguarding class taking care of a child that has had a seizure and you don’t want a doctor or nurse to help. An intelligent policy would be to get the very best and most highly trained person to help the child immediately because time is of the essence if you are not breathing and your color is gray. The recreation director should be fired if he has told the lifeguards to not let any doctor or nurse help in a situation like this. This neighborhood seems to want disabled children put in cages for their parents to carry around so the rest of you don’t have to be bothered. That is really archaic. Those of us with disabled children want them to have as normal a life as possible and that means giving them a chance to go out on their own even if there are risks involved. And Mark there are some enlightened places in the US where blind people get around all by themselves. West U stop denying disable kids the right to go to your school and your pool and have a little compassion

By: J

Thu, 26 Apr 2012 03:18:22 +0000

If my child was drowning please let doctors help

By: J

Thu, 26 Apr 2012 03:17:01 +0000

Please keep us posted on boys condition

By: J

Thu, 26 Apr 2012 03:14:32 +0000

This is exactly my account. I was at the nearest chair to the boy and agree with this account

By: Lia

Lia — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 03:13:11 +0000

The lifeguards did not do CPR. The police woman did and she was not present for several minutes. The kids froze. I don’t blame them but they truly did.

By: Nurse

Nurse — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 03:12:23 +0000

I was told not to read these comments, but here I am. I was one of the medical people turned away. First off I want to apologize Ken for the language I used with your daughter. It was out of my character and I hope to tell her that in person someday if I can recognize her. Until then, please tell her. This whole event has taken many forms of life, as I can read here. Right now my concerns and prayers are for the child and his family. As for the other day, all I can say is whe you’ve been trained to save lives, and you’ve done it for years, it becomes a passion and your mission. It is never my place to interfere where someone else is doing that. We know when we are supposed to let others do their jobs. The lifeguards were undoubtedly trained well and have proved that many other times, I suspect. On this particular day, it appeared that they reached a pont where they may have needed a hand. The offerings of myself and the other doctors came from a genuine place of care and comradery and not malice. Besides being medical personnel, we are all parents, which made it more personal. These were young people with a serious issue before them. I remember being a young lifeguard and it is scary when you are faced with an emergency. For reasons they felt were valid, they refused our help. This was where emotions heightened because we were watching the child decline-visual clues you notice when you are trained for this- and minutes are precious. It is our civil duty to do what we can wherever we are. It was a frustrating feeling to not be able to use the skills we are armed with while a child’s life was in the balance. At that point, it was not about hurting feelings or being politically correct with language. It was about life and death. Everyone has an opinion about all of this and the entire matter is very difficult. Who is right…who is to blame…these are the questions flying around. I know these kids are capable. We’ve been at the pool for several years now and always felt safe there. I am sure this event will be an instrument for them to learn from. I pray that the boy and his parents are blessed with a miracle and that the staff recover emotionally regardless of the outcome.

By: Jocelyn

Jocelyn — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 02:31:19 +0000

Close bystander and Ana said it exactly as I saw it too. I was right there,although silent. I regret my silence, but I can see speaking up would’ve done no good because others tried. Yes some of the lifeguards were young, but the manager Julia is not.i heard her telling the doctors to go back off. That would’ve been fine had she been doing what she should’ve done. Again we are all speaking in circles. Yes parents should’ve been there, yes the medical professionals around shoulde been allowed to help, yes the lifeguards panicked, yes this whole thing is unfortunate. what matters most is that the boy is likely not going to survive. Let a judge decide who is at fault. In the future, don’t rely fully on lifeguards to be guarding lives. Be with your kids…not on the phone or sunbathing, but really with them.

By: Jonathan

Jonathan — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 01:43:12 +0000

However, most of the time (90 percent) the kid was just lying there on his back motionless. That’s what I could see from the other side of the pool.

By: O

Thu, 26 Apr 2012 00:53:21 +0000

I was not there but it must of been horrible. The real issue is not to find falt but to move forward. It could be any of our children face down in the pool for one reason or another. The cause of the near drowning is not the issue. The issue seems to be – should have a system set up that would allow our MD’s or RN’s assist. They could volunteer – have a form of identification- a symbol on pool card or wrist band. Of course when buying a pass or paying to enter we would have to sign a contract stating we understand in extreme situations ( when a child or adult is lifeless and color has gone) the neighborhood MD’s (who have been cleared to volunteer) can assist. We are lucky in the since that we do have great lawyers and great doctors in our neighborhood. The goal is the same – to use the resources that are unique to West U and have the best system set up for such extreme emergencies. Great Job lifeguards for getting him out of the pool! I cannot even imagine being in your situation that day. Possabiliby watching a young boys life slip away and being responsible for the care- all at the age of 16. Wow- that’s courage.

By: LHG

LHG — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 00:17:58 +0000

Is it hard for a child to gain access to the swimming pool? I haven’t seen anything about age. In the old days, I don’t recall any problem with just riding my bike to the pool and going swimming. My parents never went with me and I believe it was free.