Personal Narrative On Drowning

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“Excuse me lifeguard there’s a girl drowning.” A child behind me stated. “What?” I asked not completely understanding what she was saying. “Over there.” She pointed once I turned to look. As my gaze drifted across the pool I spotted her laying there face down, motionless in the water. No bigger than a baby doll you see young children playing with, her hair spread out around her in a crescent. That day began just like any other. I slept in until ten getting up when I felt like it, ate breakfast and moped around the house for two hours. I remember as I headed out to my bike noticing the temperature it was a warm day and that meant a lot of people. At this time I was still 15 so I couldn’t drive to work yet. When I arrived I went through …show more content…

Finally two hours later we blew our whistles to clear the pool for our three o’clock break. I was standing in the kiddie area. It was a warm day, but didn’t feel like submerging my body so I reclined underneath one of the umbrellas in the water. Ten minutes later our break was over and it was time to let them in. I moved to my next spot which was a chair by the basketball hoops. We no longer have that spot. The day continued on without a single problem. A little after four people began to clear out and the day seemed to slow down. Finally it was five o’clock break. At this point I was becoming a little drowsy. Again I was over by the kiddie area watching the babies over there splash in the water. I was thinking about dinner and what I was going to have when a child approached me from …show more content…

After five o’clock two lifeguards are sent home and one of the spots we remove is first chair since high chair across the water also watches it. I tore across the pool, hurdled the peninsula completely and plunged into the water beside the girl. I don’t even remember the run, I was at my spot and the next thing I know I’m by this little girl in the water. Somewhere in-between that I also activated our EAP or emergency action plan which is three whistles. Normally when you are taking an unconscious victim out of the water you are supposed to put them on a backboard and pull them out but she was so small I could lift her out and hand her to my manager. Once he took her he set her on the cement and left. It was not his job to take care of her I had to do that while he opened gates and got an ambulance coming. The first thing you do is the primary assessment where you check for a pulse and breathing. This was my first save usually a first save is not with a dead swimmer so I was a little flustered. When you check for a pulse on a infant you check there forearm because at that young you can’t find a pulse anywhere else. Instead of doing that I just laid my hand an her chest and felt for a heartbeat, I also forgot to check to see if she was breathing. She had no heartbeat so she was dead. As the second lifeguard came he asked if she had a pulse or was breathing and all I

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