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SUPERVISION
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Vigilant Surveillance is the
primary duty of all lifeguards to prevent accidents. But in
reality, vigilance is, by human nature, very difficult to maintain,
particularly when the visual tasks required by lifeguards
become boring, repetitive and routine. Youth, inexperience,
fatigue, heat, and sun also negatively affect the ability of a
lifeguard to maintain vigilant surveillance.
Lifeguards at Public Pools
The
first question you want to ask when you take your children to a guarded
pool is, "Are the lifeguards really paying attention?" The answer
is many cases is, not as much as they should be.
You
should be able to see the lifeguard scanning the pool. They are
taught that scanning should begin and end below their chair, so you
should see their heads returning to just below their chairs every 10
seconds or so.
The
reality is that in performance tests where a mannequin was placed on the
bottom of a busy pool the vast majority of lifeguards took over a minute
and a half to notice.
Even so, having a lifeguard is much better than not having a lifeguard.
Lifeguards are trained to respond to emergencies. We recommend
having your child swim at guarded facilities.
When should you allow your child to go to a public pool or country club
pool without you?
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They must know how to swim. This
means a minimum of 150 yards of crawl and
150 yards of backstroke.
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They must be of an age that you would drop
them off at any public place. If you would not drop off
your child at the mall or at a movie to meet friends or see a show
alone, do not drop them off at a pool alone.
Lifeguards are only watching your child in the pool, not in the locker
rooms or on deck. Lifeguards do not keep your child from leaving
the facility.
Speaking from personal experience at the B-T pool before we implemented
policies to prevent this; some parents dropped off five and six year old
swimmers for Open Swim. These children were, in fact, strong
swimmers. However, they were five!!! No pool has the staff
to supervise such young swimmers the way they need to be supervised.
Baby Pools at public facilities are sometimes guarded and sometimes not
guarded. Water quality is an issue of concern at most baby pools.
Water should be completely exchanged at least once every day.
Chemicals should be checked regularly. Another issue at baby pools
is "bottom heavy" toddlers. Toddlers often fall forward when
walking in the baby pool, putting both hands down with the face ending
up under water. Often, the weight of water-filled diapers adding
to the problem, they are unable to right themselves without assistance.
I have seen many instances where mom is sitting two feet from a child
who has upended, but doesn't notice. There is no cry for
help. Children drown in seconds and in silence. You cannot
take your eyes off of a non-swimmer.
IF YOU SEE SOMETHING, SAY SOMETHING!
The person appearing to be "playing dead" at the
bottom of the pool may actually be lifeless. If you see
something that looks "not right" at a pool, say something. Ask for
help. Teach your children to do the same.
I have two videos that are both from surveillance cameras at pools where
drownings occurred. In both incidents, curious young swimmers
circled the victims for minutes. No one
reported anything to lifeguards or attempted to help the victims, they
just looked, diving down again and again, circling around and looking
again. I don't know that it occurred to any of the children that a
tragedy was occurring right in front of them, but I do know that no one
reported anything or asked for help. In both case, it wasn't the
lifeguard who eventually spotted the victim, it was onlookers who cared
enough to get involved.
When you are the lifeguard...
When children are using a backyard pool there should always be a
designated, dedicated SWIMMER SENTRY. (We've recently
changed from "Swimmer Watcher" to "Swimmer Sentry" to describe the
responsibility to guard and protect, not just watch.)
Swimmer Sentries should always stand up and actively watch swimmers.
Swimmer Sentries can only watch swimmers or one non-swimmer...not both.
Each non-swimmer requires their own sentry within arms reach at all
times. We call this Touch Supervision.
F.A.C.E.
Your Swimmers
Focus your
Attention.
Connect
with
Each.
You should never be responsible for so many children that you cannot
make connections with each one. Scan the pool from the bottom up
and then make a connection with each child in your care. Repeat
this process again and again. Make sure you see their faces, look
into their eyes, and read their expressions. Everyone ok?
Anyone fatigued? Scared? Angry? Frustrated?
Hungry? Need a bathroom break? The hand sign for the letter
"F" looks like the symbol most of us use to signal "OK."
F.A.C.E. your swimmers; give and receive the
F.A.C.E. signal meaning "all is well."
Surveillance tasks can become repetitive, boring, and routine.
It's easy to loose focus. Heat and fatigue also play a role in
reducing your ability to maintain vigilant surveillance. Clear the
pool to take rest and bathroom breaks. Stay hydrated. Know
your limitations. Finish with the same number of precious faces
that you started with.
 Don't
just watch the water.
F.A.C.E. your Swimmers
More backyard safety tips:
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Have safety equipment in place and in
working order at all times.
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Teenagers should not be allowed to use the
pool without supervision.
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Do not serve alcohol to swimmers of any
age.
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Do not allow diving into any backyard
pool.
A RESCUE RHYME
The Red Cross teaches REACH - THROW -
ROW - DON'T GO. However, we recommend the following:
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Reach: Assist a swimmer in
trouble by reaching with an object or your arm or leg.
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Throw: Throw a line or something
that floats to a swimmer in trouble.
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Row: In open water situations,
use a boat to get to a swimmer in distress.
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GO!: Go for help. Do not
attempt a rescue in water over your head if you are not a
trained lifeguard.
Only a trained lifeguard should
attempt a rescue in water over his/her head. You can get this training
yourself from a variety of organizations. We highly
recommend lifeguard training for owners of backyard pools.
Here are the answers to some questions
about backyard pool drownings...
Who was in charge of supervision at
the time of drowning?
What were the locations of the pool
drownings?
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65% were in a pool owned by the child's
family
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22% were in a pool owned by a relative
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11% happened at a neighbor's pool.
Drownings happen quickly and without
warning. There is no cry for help. 77% of the
children had been seen five minutes or less before being missed
and subsequently discovered in the pool.
And where were they last seen?
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46% were last seen in the house prior to
being found in the pool. Of these, 15% were thought to be
sleeping.
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23% were last seen in the yard, porch, or
patio, not in the pool area. That's a total of 69 percent that
were thought not to be in the pool area, but they were found in the
water.
CPR / FIRST AID / LIFEGUARD TRAINING
CPR
is an artificial method of circulating blood and oxygen through a body
attempting to keep the brain alive. CPR & First Aid Training are
readily available in most communities. We can help you find a
course in your area. It's easy to learn and YOU CAN DO IT.
Lifeguard Training is a great way to learn to respond to emergency
situations in and around the water. You do not have to plan to
work as a professional lifeguard to benefit from this training.
The American Red Course is excellent, but lengthy. I recommend
that all fifteen year olds take lifeguard training whether or not they
ever plan to lifeguard professionally.
DRY DROWNING IN THE NEWS - Updated September 16, 2008
The following information is copied directly from my blog.
http://www.faceupfirst.blogspot.com/
Ahoy!
I've been told that this afternoon Oprah
is going to do a story about a child who
died from "dry drowning." I'm going to
try to get to a TV to watch the story,
and if so, I'll comment on the program
later. Right now, I wanted to post some
links where you can read more
information about dry and secondary
drowning.
The child that will be discussed on the
Oprah show died from "secondary
drowning" because he had water in his
lungs. "Dry" drowning is a different
event. Both events are discussed in the
posts listed below. I will find some
additional references on the subject and
post them on our Water Safety page at
http://www.btaquatics.org/.
1. Question and answer article with
answers from Neil Schachter, MD, medical
director of respiratory care at Mount
Sinai Medical Center in New York City
http://children.webmd.com/news/20080605/sc-dry-drowning-death-draws-attention
http://www.wciv.com/news/stories/0608/525754.html
2. Articles about the child discussed on
the Oprah show
http://www.wciv.com/news/stories/0608/525754.html
http://www.efluxmedia.com/news_Goose_Creek_Boy_Dies_from_Secondary_Drowning_18532.html
3. Snopes.com post on this subject
http://www.snopes.com/medical/disease/drydrowning.asp
4. LA Times article on this subject
http://articles.latimes.com/2008/jun/16/health/he-danger16
5. Wikipedia article on Dry Drowning
(I've copied one paragraph from this
article below.)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dry_drowning
Misnomer in Media
Dry drowning was cast into the media
spotlight in June of 2008 after the
tragic death of a 10 year old boy in
South Carolina several hours after
swimming
[1]. In this case, "dry drowning"
may have been a misnomer, however. The
incident described by the boy's mother
did relate an episode of forceful apnea
that would have indicated laryngospasm
and therefore dry drowning. What is
clear is that this boy's death involved
the delayed effects of an injury
suffered by his lungs while in the
swimming pool. Typically, dry drowning
involves laryngospasm and immediate
hypoxia and death, not delayed pulmonary
edema. Theoretically, it is possible
that the negative inspiratory forces of
the diaphragm against the closed upper
airway in laryngospasm could cause
enough barotrauma to trigger alveolar
injury and pulmonary edema. In this case
of barotrauma, the dry drowning survivor
could suffer laryngospasm too brief to
cause death, but long enough to cause
delayed pulmonary edema and death
several hours later. This phenomena
would be similar to the delayed
pulmonary edema of a "wet drowning"
victim, however, and therefore fairly
impossible to distinguish. It is unclear
as to why the media labeled the 10 year
old's death a case of "dry drowning"
rather than a "secondary drowning" or
"delayed submersion injury."
I recommend that everyone read this
information and be aware of the signs
and symptoms of post-immersion syndrome,
dry-, and secondary drowning.
Please feel free to contact me if you
have any questions.
Be safe.
-jn
I'm
not sure when the CDC updated their site with the following notice.
I read it and posted it here on November 14, 2008.
From the CDC site (link below):
UPDATE: Recent media reports
have incorrectly attributed to CDC data about incidents of "dry
drowning." CDC supports international consensus defining drowning as
"the process of experiencing respiratory impairment from
submersion/immersion in liquid" and does not distinguish between "wet"
and "dry" drowning. Children most commonly drown when they get into a
pool area unsupervised (for example, if there is inadequate fencing) or
they are playing in or around water without constant supervision or
lifeguarding. Most drownings happen quickly, and usually silently.
Aquatic activities under appropriate circumstances and supervision are
generally safe; additionally, swimming and water safety skills are
important and can be life-saving. Learn more about
preventing water-related injuries.
http://www.cdc.gov/print.do?url=http%3A//www.cdc.gov/ncipc/factsheets/drown.htm%23cdc%20research%20found
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