Cory
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So, I didn't expect to return to this forum, but after my latest experience I have learned some things, and I wanted to come back because I want to have this forum as a resource. So I want to apologize to every member of this forum now for what has happened in the past, and hopefully you can accept my apology.
First Save:
So, as some of you know, I worked as a lifeguard at a pool this summer. (yes, I'm only a wannabe EMT/medic) And it was a slow summer for the most part. I felt more like a cop than someone guarding any lives. I treated a nosebleed, and two bee stings. But then on my second last day of the year I had a real situation. [I have written this so many times from incident reports to school essays, that I really am just going to give a cut and dry explanation.)
We had ten day camps come to the pool, making somewhere around 90-120 kids in the pool at any given time of the day. It was madness from the minute we opened.
Anyway, at around 2:20 I happened to look up from my area and notice a crowd forming around the steps at the three foot entrance. I spotted the lifeguard from that area in the crowd, and seconds later I saw her sprint off inside. I knew immediately she was going to call 911. So, frantically I signaled my senior lifeguard, and we cleared the pool. I took off for the crowd. My expectation was a broken leg or arm (a common topic regarding the safety risks of the steps)
When I got there, I realized the situation was much worse. On my approach I saw a boy and a woman at the middle of the crowd. There was a three year old boy laying unconscious just outside the pool. His eyes were rolled back, and vomit was spewing from him. So, noticing the vomit, I immediately grabbed a CPR mask off of one of the lifeguards chairs. There was a woman giving him chest compressions, she was not a lifeguard but I ignored that and continued.
So when I got there, I was berrated with insults and jeers from the crowd. I walked up to the two, got down just in front of the boy's head, and immediately told the woman who I was and that she needed to continue chest compressions (he most likely had a pulse, but he had gone unconscious under water[still wet, wet drag lines coming from the waters edge] so I deduced that he was in essence a choking victim, which would require chest compressions anyway)
Sparing many details that you all would most likely already know (traumatc things for me, but most of you have all seen it before) we did five sets on him, each time watching him fade in and then back out, until on the fifth set, instead of making a struggling noise and clenching his teeth, he just started crying. So we rolled him into a recovery position.
Now, being it my first time, and a bunch of lifeguards at a pool that has never in it's 50 years having had a bad emergency situation (or even transport), a lot of emtional stuff came after all of this. But basically, after we rolled him, I looked up to see tw EMT's three cops and the chief of police and the fire chief all staring back at me. The boy was released hours later with no complications.
It was an elightening, ensuring and yet disturbing experience for me. It both confirmed and made me question my choice of EMS. But later I realized that this had in fact definately confrimed it. So I am taking an explorers course at a local hospital just for a starting place ( I still don't know if EMS is an option, and even if i is it will most likely be the hospital's ambulance service)
Now, I figure a lot of those details about how the procedure went and how his body reacted and what I was feeling wouldn't be as interesting to a bunch of EMTs as it would be to my English teacher or a jaded pool manager. But I do have very detailed stroies re-telling it written if you want to read them (let me know, don't really expect anyone to, but you're more than welcome to PM me about it) But keep in mind this was a VERY cut and dry telling.
-Cory-
First Save:
So, as some of you know, I worked as a lifeguard at a pool this summer. (yes, I'm only a wannabe EMT/medic) And it was a slow summer for the most part. I felt more like a cop than someone guarding any lives. I treated a nosebleed, and two bee stings. But then on my second last day of the year I had a real situation. [I have written this so many times from incident reports to school essays, that I really am just going to give a cut and dry explanation.)
We had ten day camps come to the pool, making somewhere around 90-120 kids in the pool at any given time of the day. It was madness from the minute we opened.
Anyway, at around 2:20 I happened to look up from my area and notice a crowd forming around the steps at the three foot entrance. I spotted the lifeguard from that area in the crowd, and seconds later I saw her sprint off inside. I knew immediately she was going to call 911. So, frantically I signaled my senior lifeguard, and we cleared the pool. I took off for the crowd. My expectation was a broken leg or arm (a common topic regarding the safety risks of the steps)
When I got there, I realized the situation was much worse. On my approach I saw a boy and a woman at the middle of the crowd. There was a three year old boy laying unconscious just outside the pool. His eyes were rolled back, and vomit was spewing from him. So, noticing the vomit, I immediately grabbed a CPR mask off of one of the lifeguards chairs. There was a woman giving him chest compressions, she was not a lifeguard but I ignored that and continued.
So when I got there, I was berrated with insults and jeers from the crowd. I walked up to the two, got down just in front of the boy's head, and immediately told the woman who I was and that she needed to continue chest compressions (he most likely had a pulse, but he had gone unconscious under water[still wet, wet drag lines coming from the waters edge] so I deduced that he was in essence a choking victim, which would require chest compressions anyway)
Sparing many details that you all would most likely already know (traumatc things for me, but most of you have all seen it before) we did five sets on him, each time watching him fade in and then back out, until on the fifth set, instead of making a struggling noise and clenching his teeth, he just started crying. So we rolled him into a recovery position.
Now, being it my first time, and a bunch of lifeguards at a pool that has never in it's 50 years having had a bad emergency situation (or even transport), a lot of emtional stuff came after all of this. But basically, after we rolled him, I looked up to see tw EMT's three cops and the chief of police and the fire chief all staring back at me. The boy was released hours later with no complications.
It was an elightening, ensuring and yet disturbing experience for me. It both confirmed and made me question my choice of EMS. But later I realized that this had in fact definately confrimed it. So I am taking an explorers course at a local hospital just for a starting place ( I still don't know if EMS is an option, and even if i is it will most likely be the hospital's ambulance service)
Now, I figure a lot of those details about how the procedure went and how his body reacted and what I was feeling wouldn't be as interesting to a bunch of EMTs as it would be to my English teacher or a jaded pool manager. But I do have very detailed stroies re-telling it written if you want to read them (let me know, don't really expect anyone to, but you're more than welcome to PM me about it) But keep in mind this was a VERY cut and dry telling.
-Cory-
